The Hindu : National : Philips unveils 256-slice Brilliance iCT scanner

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Wednesday, Nov 28, 2007
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Philips unveils 256-slice Brilliance iCT scanner

R.K. Radhakrishnan

CHICAGO: Philips Electronics has unveiled a 256-slice Brilliance iCT scanner that will allow radiologists to create high-quality images with excellent acquisition speed.

Philips says, it is powerful enough to capture an image of the entire heart in just two beats while significantly reducing the radiation doses.

“The new Brilliance iCT scanner is specifically designed by Philips to make the job of the clinicians easier and improve the experience of the patient,” said Steve Rusckowski, CEO of Philips Medical Systems.

Speaking to a select group of journalists flown in by the company from Asia on the sidelines of the 93rd Radiological Society of North America conference that opened on November 25, he said the Brilliance iCT and the 64-channel system both feature Philips Essence technology, which comprises new X-ray tubes, detectors and reconstruction design elements.

This technology can provide detailed and clear 3D images of an entire organ, including the heart and brain, and show changes over time. Colleagues and researchers can also access all images on any computer in a hospital or remotely, to make it easier for a whole team to share information.

So far, over 30 CT systems with Essence technology have been shipped to hospitals in the U.S., Europe and Latin America.

It is unlikely to come to India in the near future though. Philips executives said Singapore would be the first country in Asia to get the machine “by August-September 2008.” A hospital in Mumbai, though, has the upgraded version of the Philips 64-slice scanner, the Brilliance 64.

Philips is also showcasing five research projects that demonstrate where radiological technology for diagnosis and treatment of heart diseases and cancer is headed.

The projects are: spectral CT imaging to quantify the amount of calcium in tissues such as calcified plaques and the ability to differentiate multiple contrast agents from anatomical structures in one-pass CT scans; advanced software algorithms to calculate the probability that a lung nodule is malignant, to search a database of prior cases with known diagnoses and present clinically relevant past cases to the user; patient-specific organ models for personalised radiology planning, therapy and reporting; new image analysis techniques to enhance the resolution and image quality of PET and SPECT scans and extract quantitative information relating to localised tissue processes such as hypoxia (reduced oxygen levels in tissue); and image-guidance technology based on the fusion of MR and ultrasound images for prostate biopsy.

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