Philips Healthcare is stepping up efforts to deliver its ultra-premium Brilliance iCT to sites around the world. Jeffrey Studenka, Philips’ senior director for field marketing, told Diagnostic Imaging at the Stanford MDCT conference that the company now expects to have 50 of the 256-slice units installed by the end of 2008. This is about four times as many as company execs were predicting when they unveiled the iCT at RSNA 2007.

Plans are on track for Toshiba America Medical Systems to begin routine shipments by summer’s end of its AquilionOne, featuring the industry’s only wide area detector, spanning 320 detector rows.

CT multitasks in the lungs, serving as a tool for cancer screening, disease diagnosis, lesion characterization, and lung cancer treatment response. In a talk at the 2008 Stanford International Symposium on Multidetector-Row CT in Las Vegas, Michael McNitt-Gray, Ph.D., posited that CT can be used more effectively to assess treatment response in lung cancer patients, but clinicians must look beyond current response parameters.

Logistical and reimbursement limitations dictate that most CT exams be performed on an outpatient basis, making it difficult to manage contrast-related reactions, especially in patients with renal insufficiency. Oral hydration may be as effective as intravenous fluids for preventing contrast-induced nephropathy in some instances, but further study is needed.

As the exhibit floor at the Stanford International Symposium on Multidetector-Row CT was ready to open May 13, GE booth managers strategically placed signs announcing the FDA clearance of its new LightSpeed CT750 HD atop displays of the scanner’s components.

Siemens Healthcare cast its dual-source CT scanner Somatom Definition as the clinical pioneer of multienergy scanning, presenting its Optimum Contrast software as the means for improving dual-energy images created using injected contrast agents. Image optimization algorithms process data obtained at different energy levels -- 80 kVp to 140 kVp -- to create optimal image quality for the kinds of structures being displayed (soft tissue and vasculature, for example), according to the company.

Faster and better visualization are the main reasons to use dual-energy CT for the assessment of pancreatic masses, according to a presentation at the Stanford International Symposium on Multidetector-Row CT in Las Vegas.

Cystic lesions of the pancreas tend to be a phenomenon of aging. By and large, these lesions are benign, but sorting out the small number that have potential for malignancy is important.

Attendees of the International Symposium on Multidetector-Row CT will get a chance to visit a clinical installation of Toshiba’s new 320-channel CT scanner at the nearby Nevada Imaging Centers in Las Vegas.

GE Healthcare unveiled a new flagship CT scanner May 13 at the International Symposium on Multidetector-Row CT in Las Vegas.

When it comes to radiation dose, the news media, and the general public by extension, zero in on one aspect only: risk, risk, and more risk. But what about any potential positive effects of exposure to ionizing radiation? In a talk at the Stanford MDCT symposium in Las Vegas, Cynthia McCollough, Ph.D., took on the task of scientifically demonstrating that some level of radiation exposure may be a good thing.

Diagnostic power and field strength go hand in hand when it comes to evaluating multiple sclerosis.

Excitement is never in short supply in Las Vegas. But a new session at the 2008 Stanford International Multidetector-Row CT Symposium may give the casinos, cocktail lounges, and Canadian circus acts a run for their money.

Practice meets theory at the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine 2008 Annual Meeting, May 15-18, in Seattle. The SIIM meeting has always provided a collegial environment for practical education and demonstration combined with the latest research and science in imaging informatics.

Studies described during a scientific session at the ISMRM on Wednesday showed that diagnostic power and field strength go hand in hand when it comes to evaluating multiple sclerosis.

New MR spectroscopy findings indicate that changes in brain glutamate levels reflect changes in heroin craving among addicts during methadone maintenance therapy. MRS may eventually help predict if addicts will relapse after treatment.

A clinical trial presented Monday demonstrated how complicated the quantification of dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI of suspected prostate cancer can be.