Toshiba announces new functional-based clinical applications

Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc. announces new functional-based clinical applications - Dual Energy and Myocardial Perfusion (both works-in-progress), as well as Body Perfusion - for its Aquilion^TM CT systems. These applications are shown at this year's Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) annual meeting in Chicago, Nov. 27 - Dec. 2, 2011.

Dual Energy (WIP)

Dual Energy, which will be available on Aquilion ONE^TM, Aquilion Premium and Aquilion PRIME (pending 510(k) clearance), uses two energy levels to increase the amount of information available from CT imaging. It can non-invasively help to visualize and characterize anatomy. Toshiba's unique Dual Energy changes kV and mA during a single scan and deactivates the X-ray at the anterior section of the body to reduce overall radiation dose to sensitive areas.

Myocardial Perfusion (WIP)

With Toshiba's Aquilion ONE, a combination of CTA and CT myocardial perfusion can be utilized to visualize blood flow and more precisely identify ischemia with less radiation than PET/CT and/or SPECT imaging. To validate this clinical application for CT, the multi-center, Toshiba-supported CORE320 trial completed enrollment in September and aims to compare the accuracy of CTA and CT myocardial perfusion to SPECT and Catheter Angiography.

Body Perfusion

Toshiba's Body Perfusion is an application to evaluate perfusion of the target organ or target lesions with dynamic volume imaging of entire organs during contrast medium infusion. This can provide invaluable information in the diagnosis of disease and for assessing the effectiveness of treatment. Once combined with Toshiba's AIDR 3D (pending 510(k) clearance) algorithm, Body Perfusion enables clinicians to perform body perfusion exams using lower dose, making it safer for the patient. It will be available for Aquilion ONE and Aquilion Premium.

"Technology advancements continue to take CT from anatomical to physiological, showing blood flow and function," said Joseph Cooper, director, CT Business Unit, Toshiba. "Our new clinical CT applications enable clinicians to evaluate disease more easily, with the potential to dramatically improve patient care."