Innovative X-Ray Tube and Detector Technology Developed for Angiography Applications

Newly designed X-ray tubes in an angiography range of systems are intended to help clinicians identify small vessels up to 70% better than traditional X-ray tube technology. The angiography systems combine a novel X-ray source with a new detector technology designed to support interventional imaging in very low-dose ranges to patients, physicians, and medical staff—especially during longer interventions.

Siemens Healthcare (Erlangen, Germany) designed its new X-ray tube and detector technology for its Artis Q and Artis Q.zen angiography systems, which Siemens has designed to improve minimally invasive therapy of diseases such as coronary artery disease, stroke, and cancer.

The second-generation of Siemens’ flat emitter technology is vital to the latest development made in the X-ray tube for the Artis Q and Artis Q.zen product range. In place of the coiled filaments used in traditional X-ray tubes, flat emitter technology is used exclusively in the new tube to emit electrons. Flat emitters are designed to enable smaller quadratic focal spots that lead to improved visibility of small vessels by up to 70%. With this technology, neurologists can more precisely measure blood circulation in specific areas of the brain, for example, whereas stenoses in the smallest blood vessels in the heart can be detected in coronary angiography.

The Artis Q.zen series has been designed to combine the X-ray tube with a detector technology that allows detection at ultralow radiation levels. Artis Q.zen imaging can use doses as low as half the standard levels applied in angiography. This enhancement is the result of several innovations, including an essential change in detector technology. Until now, almost all detectors have been based on amorphous silicon. The new crystalline silicon structure of the Artis Q.zen detector is designed to be more homogenous, allowing for more effective amplification of the signal, greatly reducing the electronic noise even at ultralow doses.

The Artis Q.zen was developed to support enhanced imaging quality at ultralow-dose ranges, decreasing the radiation exposure of patients, physicians, and medical staff. This is especially important in dose-sensitive application fields such as radiology and pediatric cardiology, or electrophysiology, which is being used more frequently as rates of cardiac arrhythmia increase in an aging population.

Several software tools, in addition to these hardware developments, have been designed to improve interventional imaging. In coronary artery disease treatment, the applications allow precise correlation of angiography images with ultrasound images captured by a probe inside the coronary arteries. Stents are imaged in real time during therapy, with motion stabilization created by simultaneous correction for the heartbeat.

Other new three-dimensional (3D) applications are designed to image the smallest structures inside the head. Their high spatial resolution is crucial for imaging intracranial stents or other miniscule structures such as the cochlea in the inner ear. Moving organs such as the lungs can be imaged in 3D in less than 3 seconds, reducing motion artifacts and the required amount of contrast agent. Through visualization and measurement of blood volumes in the liver or other organs, Siemens’ functional 3D imaging provides a basis for planning therapies such as chemoembolization of hepatic tumors.

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