Toshiba prepares jump to 64 slices

The Aquilion family of multislice CT scanners will soon include a system capable of generating 64 slices per rotation. The company formally announced at the International Symposium on Multidetector-Row CT that it will release a 64-slice version of its Aquilion CT next year. The announcement followed a presentation at the June symposium by Toshiba luminary Dr. Kazuhiro Katada, who described his experience with a version of the scanner installed in March at Fujita Health University in Japan. The first images were shown publicly at the Japanese Radiology Congress in April (SCAN 6/2/04). Aquilion 64 is built on the same platform as the Aquilion 32, using Toshiba's 64-row Quantum detector. The 64-slice configuration will be available for routine delivery next year, according to the company. Aquilion 32, which will enter commercial production late this year, will be field-upgradable to a 64-slice configuration with the addition of supplementary data channels.