Canon develops small digital radiography sensor

Canon Medical Systems has developed another product for its line of digital radiography equipment, a small flat-panel sensor that can be hooked up to a portable computer. When combined with the company’s digital bucky system, the sensor, called CXDI-31, provides unprecedented flexibility in the radiographic suite.

“This is for patients who might not be especially mobile,” said Jennifer Benzakin, marketing specialist for Canon. “It might be difficult to turn them to the correct position, or even get them on the table. You can just move this panel around, put it on any body part, and get the image.”

The flat panel, which weighs just 6.2 pounds and is less than an inch thick, might be especially useful when imaging patients who cannot be transferred to a table-based system. The portable sensor could be used to image these patients as they lie on stretchers or gurneys wheeled into the radiographic suite, according to Benzakin.

CXDI-31was unveiled at the annual meeting of the American Healthcare Radiology Administrators in Las Vegas, July 30 to Aug. 3. The work-in-progress, which is under review at the FDA, is based on the same amorphous silicon technology as the larger, less mobile flat panels developed by Canon for its other digital radiography systems. In combination with the company’s upright or table-based digital products, the CXDI-31 sensor can generate radiographs of any part of the body using a single control station. The 9 x 11-inch exposure area generates a 14-bit digital image and delivers 100-micron resolution. Images appear on a preview monitor approximately three seconds after x-ray exposure. The data can then be routed into or archived by a PAC system.

Canon will target its current base of more than 200 sites worldwide, as well as first-time buyers of Canon digital radiography products. The company expects to commercialize this newest offering in October 2001, contingent on FDA clearance in September. The price will be less than $100,000, according to Benzakin.

Canon has proven adept at turning its amorphous silicon technologies into a variety of configurations. The company introduced its first major offering, the CXDI-11 upright DR system, at the 1998 RSNA meeting. A year later it unveiled the CXDI-22, a bucky system that uses a universal stand to operate as both an upright and a table system (SCAN 12/15/99). Canon also offers the 17 x 17-inch imaging plate found in the upright and table systems as part of a retrofit for existing film-based bucky tables.

The CDXI-31 is operating at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, which has served as a luminary site for the development of Canon’s other digital radiography systems. It will be sold separately or in combination with digital radiography and PACS products offered by Canon Medical Systems, which was formed as a subsidiary of Canon, Inc. in April 1999 as a single source from which to purchase the parent company’s medical products. The subsidiary is the result of a merger between Canon’s USA Medical and its AOP Medical PACS divisions (SCAN 4/28/99).