Toshiba rolls out next-generation CT scannerAquilionONE
The fruit of 10 years of research and an investment of $500 million, Toshiba America Medical Systems this morning introduced its next-generation AquilionONE Dynamic Volume CT scanner to its portfolio. The scanner is the commercial version of the company’s 256-slice beta project, according to Douglas J. Ryan, senior director, CT Business Unit for Toshiba.
   
The AquilionONE, which has received FDA 510(k) marketing clearance and will begin deliveries in the summer of 2008, is based on Dynamic Volume CT technology with 320 detector elements—some 25 percent more than 256 detector technology the company has been testing at Fujita Health System in Japan and Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore. The system scans up to16 cm in one rotation with 0.5 mm resolution. Ryan said it uses 80 percent less dose than current-generation scanners, as well as less contrast media per exam.
   
Unlike traditional multislice scanning in which the detectors rotate around the patient 15 to 20 for a cardiac scan, Dynamic Volume CT accomplishes a complete heart scan in one rotation with uniform contrast and making reconstruction simple, Ryan said.
   
With NeuroONE software, AquilionONE can accomplish cerebral angiography, cerebral venography and whole brain perfusion in less than a minute, and reconstruct brain volumes in less than 10 seconds.
   
AquilionONE features a Mega Cool V x-ray tube, Quantum V detector and a new gantry design—eVolution, that turns the kinetic energy of the scan into electricity to put back into the system. Table capacity is 650 pounds. Among the facilities at which the system is installed are Fujita Health System, Johns Hopkins, University of Toronto, Brigham & Women’s Hospital.
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