Siemens is radically changing the direction of its CT program with the introduction of its Somatom Definition. The new scanner, publicly announced Nov. 17 and featured Sunday at the RSNA meeting, packs two imaging chains in a single unit, generating 128 slices per rotation. But Siemens is downplaying the number of slices in favor of the speed of the scanner and how its use might change the clinical application of CT.
Siemens is radically changing the direction of its CT program with the introduction of its Somatom Definition. The new scanner, publicly announced Nov. 17 and featured Sunday at the RSNA meeting, packs two imaging chains in a single unit, generating 128 slices per rotation. But Siemens is downplaying the number of slices in favor of the speed of the scanner and how its use might change the clinical application of CT.
Siemens has broken with seven years of slice wars, mounting two detectors at a 90-degree angle, each containing 32 elements and aligned with its own Straton x-ray tube, to create a system with extraordinary speed. The Somatom Definition generates a slice in 83 msec - half the time of a conventional 64-slice scanner and fast enough to freeze any beating heart, according to the company.
Conventional single-source scanners acquire a slice after a 180-degree rotation. With two imaging chains, mounted at a right angle to each other, the same information can be acquired with only a 90-degree turn.
It may seem counterintuitive, but the dual-source CT actually cuts dose rather than adds to it. The reason, according to the company, is that scan time is minimized. When applied to the heart, enough data might be acquired in a beat or two rather than the five or more required by current scanners. X-ray exposure to the patient is expected to drop by half.
This power will not come cheap. Customers will pay between $2.3 million and $2.5 million for a Somatom Definition. The price is justified, according to the company, because the speed of the system will eliminate motion artifact when imaging the heart, making it the logical choice for cardiology applications, especially when performing coronary CTA.
The Somatom Definition may also be valuable in acute care. The scanner might be able to handle a broad range of applications, from trauma to the assessment of patients with chest or abdominal pain, according to the company. It might also be applied in virtual colonography and pulmonary imaging.
Study: Contrast-Enhanced Mammography Changes Surgical Plan in 22.5 Percent of Breast Cancer Cases
December 7th 2023Contrast-enhanced mammography detected additional lesions in 43 percent of patients and led to additional biopsies in 18.2 percent of patients, over half of whom had malignant lesions, according to a study of over 500 women presented at the recent Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) conference.
Study: Regular Mammography Screening Reduces Breast Cancer Mortality Risk by More than 70 Percent
November 30th 2023Consistent adherence to the five most recent mammography screenings prior to a breast cancer diagnosis reduced breast cancer death risk by 72 percent in comparison to women who did not have the mammography screening, according to new research findings presented at the annual Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) conference.
The Reading Room: Artificial Intelligence: What RSNA 2020 Offered, and What 2021 Could Bring
December 5th 2020Nina Kottler, M.D., chief medical officer of AI at Radiology Partners, discusses, during RSNA 2020, what new developments the annual meeting provided about these technologies, sessions to access, and what to expect in the coming year.
Chest CT Study Shows Higher Emphysema Risk from Combination of Marijuana and Cigarette Smoking
November 28th 2023People who smoke marijuana and cigarettes have 12 times the risk for centrilobular emphysema than non-smokers, according to new computed tomography (CT) research presented at the annual Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) conference.