Toshiba RSNA line shows U.S. input

Toshiba America Medical Systems is planning a full-court pressat this month's Radiological Society of North America meeting.In an effort to secure a greater U.S. market share, the Japanesevendor is introducing a range of new products, many of which havebeen designed with input from U.S. clinicians, according to RaviSharma, vice president of marketing.

At the top of Toshiba's list of product introductions is Flexart,a new 0.5-tesla MRI scanner to be shown as a works-in-progress.Flexart uses a helium-only superconducting magnet designed forlow cryogen boil-off and low maintenance. The system is activelyshielded to reduce eddy currents and can be sited in a space assmall as 45 square meters, Sharma said.

"This has been developed mainly for community hospitalsand hospitals that are going to see high growth in the managed-careenvironment," he said.

Flexart will be priced at about $1 million and will be positionedas Toshiba's premium mid-field offering. The company will continueto sell MRT-50A, its existing mid-field product.

In CT, Toshiba will unveil Xpress/SX, an upgrade to the vendor'sXpress slip-ring CT scanner. The upgrade will add solid-statedetectors to Xpress, which enable faster helical scanning andimproved image quality, Sharma said.

The system is powered by a 48-kW generator with an output of400 mAs and runs a 3.5-million heat unit x-ray tube. Xpress/SXhas Food and Drug Administration marketing clearance. It willbe priced at about $1 million, Sharma said.

Other new product introductions include:

• Two new digital angiography systems targeted at interventionalvascular procedures. TDA-3000 and TDA-4000 use charge-coupleddevice (CCD) TV cameras, which Toshiba claims have superior imagequality compared to Saticon analog TV cameras used in other angiographysystems. Both TDA systems have 1024 x 1024-pixel displays. TDA-3000acquires images at 15 frames per second (fps) while TDA-4000 runsat 30 fps. The systems have FDA marketing clearance.

• GCA-7200, a dual-head gamma camera first shown in aninteractive video presentation at the Society of Nuclear Medicinemeeting in Toronto in June (SCAN 6/30/93). GCA-7200 also has FDAapproval.

• A series of ultrasound transducers designed for intraoperativesurgery. Toshiba will introduce 5-MHz and 7-MHz transducers forthe SSH-140A scanner for use during general surgery. The vendorwill also display a works-in-progress monoplane, end-firing endorectaltransducer for cryogenic prostate surgery procedures.