GE Announces Further Dose Reduction Improvements In CT

Main Category: Cardiovascular / Cardiology
Also Included In: Neurology / Neuroscience;  Medical Devices / Diagnostics
Article Date: 12 Dec 2007 - 3:00 PDT

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Meeting the growing demand for dose management, GE Healthcare now offers improved dose reduction results for both diagnostic cardiac and neuro perfusion CT exams.

GE's SnapShot Pulse technology for prospectively gated diagnostic cardiac CT exams has been proven to reduce a patient's radiation exposure by up to 83% and improve image quality. These results have been validated from clinicians performing thousands of exams at sites around the world.

GE's innovative VolumeShuttle technology delivers twice the anatomical coverage (80mm) with up to 24% less radiation exposure compared to a conventional 40mm cine perfusion protocol. This single injection acquisition generates clinically comparable perfusion maps and angiographic studies and allows clinicians to see more anatomy and enables whole organ anatomical and physiological assessment.

Both SnapShot Pulse and VolumeShuttle are offered on the GE LightSpeed VCT XT configuration, enabled by a real-time scan control architecture that ensures precise control of exposure and table position.

"We are excited that nearly 200 customers have already selected these innovative technologies as part of a new system or as an in-room upgrade for their existing system," said Gene Saragnese, vice president of Molecular Imaging and CT for GE Healthcare. "They continue to independently validate that SnapShot Pulse and VolumeShuttle deliver substantial dose reduction while maintaining or improving image quality for routine imaging, case after case."

Dr. Richard Kane, Interventional Radiologist with Saint Francis Hospital-Resurrection Health Care in Evanston, IL, uses these innovative capabilities to detect coronary and vascular disease or trauma in nearly every patient referred to him. "I've been routinely impressed with the capabilities presented," Dr. Kane observed. "In this field, most cases intrinsically benefit from the speed, image quality, perfusion coverage and dose reduction afforded by SnapShot Pulse and VolumeShuttle. They have truly become irreplaceable tools for our facility."

GE Healthcare introduced the LightSpeed VCT, the world's first volume CT system now with over 2,000 systems installed, capable of capturing images of the heart and coronary arteries in just five heartbeats. By building on the strong foundation of LightSpeed VCT, technologies such as SnapShot Pulse and VolumeShuttle offer healthcare professionals the opportunity to expand the clinical utility of their system.

"As leaders in CT, GE has focused on developing technologies that provide clinical excellence and outstanding image quality while reducing dose exposure for patients," said Saragnese. "We believe this is an important advancement toward realizing GE's goal of 'early health,' shifting the paradigm from treating late stage disease to preventing it through early detection."

About GE Healthcare

GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, performance improvement, drug discovery, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies is helping clinicians around the world re-imagine new ways to predict, diagnose, inform, treat and monitor disease, so patients can live their lives to the fullest.

GE Healthcare's broad range of products and services enable healthcare providers to better diagnose and treat cancer, heart disease, neurological diseases and other conditions earlier. Our vision for the future is to enable a new "early health" model of care focused on earlier diagnosis, pre-symptomatic disease detection and disease prevention. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a $17 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 46,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at http://www.gehealthcare.com.