Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics has announced that it will display and demonstrate its advanced visualisation, magnetic resonance technologies and more at RSNA 2009 in Chicago, US.
The company's booth will encapsulate the theme 'Images, My Way', and it will show how Siemens supports its customers to generate, process, read and share clinical images the way that they want to.
Through Syngo.via, advanced visualisation (AV) and multimodality reading of clinical cases create efficiency and ease of use, making AV, 3D and 4D reading part of daily routine tasks.
Syngo.via is said to offer speed, efficiency and connectivity of workflows, various degrees of automation, and is service-/customer-oriented.
The system is compatible with any existing IT environment and is said to offer optimal performance (fast data link) in combination with Siemens modalities.
Furthermore, Siemens has enhanced the power of its total imaging matrix (Tim) technology with its day optimising throughput (Dot) engine.
Both technologies are introduced in the Magnetom Aera 1.5 Tesla (T) and the Magnetom Skyra 3T scanners.
The combination of Tim 4G and Dot delivers patient-centred care and improved productivity across the entire MRI workflow.
Tim 4G is now available with up to 204 coil elements and up to 128 receive channels.
Dot offers patient personalisation, user guidance, and exam automation to help optimise every part of the practice.
At RSNA 2009, Siemens will showcase technologies including angiography, fluoroscopy and X-ray.
Siemens Healthcare will also introduce its portfolio for imaging in interventional oncology.
Using these minimally invasive procedures for cancer therapy, the interventional radiologist navigates catheters or needles in the millimetre range.
To this end, systems and applications are required that supply high image quality for the detection of details in soft tissue.
Siemens said it provides high-end imaging systems and advanced applications for this purpose, which support the physician throughout the entire workflow, from tumour evaluation and procedure planning to therapy and follow-up.
Siemens will also feature the Artis Zeego; a multi-axis system with robotic-assisted positioning that enables variable working height, unique parking positions for hybrid rooms, and delivers large-volume Syngo DynaCT image results to meet current and future clinical needs.
Also highlighted will be the Ysio, a digital radiography solution with intuitive colour touch-screen control.
Ysio is available in a variety of combinations: as a wall stand with an integrated detector; a wall-and-table system with a wireless detector; and as a mixed detector solution for high throughput and flexibility.
Ysio's ergonomic table design caters to the full spectrum of patient profiles from paediatrics to bariatrics, offering a 660lb weight capacity and a low table height of 21in for convenient positioning when shifting sick or elderly patients from wheelchair to table.
Siemens has developed many products and protocols that follow the Alara (as low as reasonably achievable) principle to reduce radiation dose to the lowest possible level.
With the introduction of iterative reconstruction in image space (Iris), Siemens offers dose savings of up to 60 per cent for a range of clinical applications.
In an iterative reconstruction (IR), a correction loop is introduced into the image-generation process.
Iris, Siemens' approach to IR, overcomes the time-consuming processing of theoretical iterative reconstruction.
In addition, Iris maintains a normal image impression solving the challenge of early statistical approaches.
Highlighting lowest dose and fastest speed, Siemens will also demonstrate the Somatom Definition Flash dual-source computed tomography (CT) scanner.
The Somatom Definition Flash is said to require a fraction of the radiation dose that systems previously required to scan even the tiniest anatomical details.
The fastest scanning speed in CT (up to 45cm/s) and a temporal resolution of 75ms enable complete scans of the entire chest region in 0.6 seconds.
Therefore, clinicians now have a choice if they require their patients to hold their breath or not during the exam.
Siemens will also present Syngo.plaza, a picture archiving and communications system that will combine 2D, 3D, and 4D reading - enabling fast reading in any dimension - together in one place.
Syngo.plaza complements Siemens advanced imaging offering and integrates with the company's Syngo.via software.
The system features case-specific reading; based on clinical images, it automatically knows when to call up 2D, 3D, or 4D applications.
The system remembers users' preferences and sorts images accordingly.
Furthermore, the reading tools and layouts can be adapted to users' daily requirements.
Due to its flexibility and minimal hardware requirements, users can re-use existing hardware components and easily add storage capacity.
Syngo Mammoreport, Siemens Healthcare's reporting workstation for mammography, is fast and efficient for reading mammograms, and allows 2D ultrasound and MR images to be included into decisions.
From the end of 2009 on, Syngo Mammoreport is also adapting to new applications in breast imaging, by including the ABVS Workplace for the diagnosis of 3D ultrasound images.
With this solution, one workstation is required for comprehensive breast diagnosis, enabling easy comparison of 3D ultrasound and mammography images.
Finding suspicious lesions or microcalcifications in breast images often results in a biopsy.
The Mammotest is Siemens fully digital prone table biopsy system with a large breast aperture (11in).
It is said to be ideally suited for visualising the smallest microcalcifications and diagnosing masses and suspicious lesions, optimal contrast and spatial resolution for easy visualisation of entire breast anatomy.
Its polar co-ordinate system offers unobstructed view to needle/lesion with precise positioning (with +/-1mm targeting accuracy), and 'target on scout' capability.
With Mammotest, the patient rests in a more comfortable prone position.
The large aperture lets the breast and axilla fall away from the chest, offering unobstructed access to the region of interest.
The table design, together with a rotating gantry as well as the lateral arm, offer all-angles and fully 360-degrees patient and lesion access.
Siemens Healthcare will also showcase Biograph mCT, a molecular CT, at RSNA 2009.
Biograph mCT enables facilities to serve both the nuclear medicine and the radiology department with one system.
It achieves this duality through the integration of PET and CT technologies, offering high-definition PET, time-of-flight technology, and CT configurations up to 128 slices.
Siemens will also highlight Symbia.net, the client-server solution for Spect and Spect-CT imaging applications.
In addition to the recent release of several new systems into the PET-CT and SPECT-CT markets, this client-server solution will allow facilities that require reading from multiple locations to share and access patient imaging data.
Symbia.net is designed for the specific needs of molecular imaging with a user-friendly interface and advanced automation features.
It improves clinical workflow by providing hospital staff with easy, economical, access to all patient cases and applications.
A new release of its Acuson S2000 ultrasound platform features advancements in acoustic radiation force imaging (ARFI) and contrast imaging, as well as a complete new imaging line for OB/GYN.
In addition, the company will showcase the Acuson S2000 automated breast volume scanner (ABVS).
Siemens' implementations of ARFI, virtual touch tissue imaging and virtual touch tissue quantification, have been further optimised on the Acuson S2000 ultrasound system.
These technologies add an independent parameter to the existing morphological diagnostic process by interrogating and measuring the mechanical strain properties or stiffness of tissue, which may be correlated with pathology.
Virtual touch tissue quantification provides a numerical value related to tissue stiffness at a precise anatomical location, which is promising in identifying early stages of liver diseases causing cirrhosis.
Furthermore, the system integrates advancements for Cadence contrast pulse sequencing technology, providing sensitive agent detection with good enhancement uniformity at high-frame-rate contrast-agent imaging at frequencies from 1.5-18 MHz.
Siemens will also be introducing its new Women's Imaging line: the Acuson S2000 ultrasound system - Women's Imaging and the Acuson X300 ultrasound system, premium edition - Women's Imaging.
Both systems offer good imaging performance and a broad spectrum of applications designed to optimise workflow for demanding requirements in maternal-foetal medicine as well as routine clinical environments.
The automated volume breast ultrasound with the Acuson S2000 ABVS system takes operator dependence and variability out of breast ultrasound, while at the same time streamlining workflow with an acquisition time of less than 10 minutes.
Never-before-seen anatomical views of the breast, such as the coronal view, increase diagnostic confidence while semi-automated reporting and comprehensive BI-RADS reporting capabilities further enhance the clinical workflow.
