World's First Adaptive CT Scanner for Any Patient and Clinical Need

A new computed tomography (CT) system adapts to virtually any patient, eliminates unnecessary doses, provides new scanning dimensions, and fits in only 18 m2.

Siemens Medical Solutions (Erlangen, Germany) has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 510(k) market clearance for the Somatom Definition AS, the world's first adaptive CT scanner. The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC; Charleston, SC, USA) is one of the first facilities to install the scanner, adding to the Somatom Definition Dual Source MUSC installed in September 2006.

"The Somatom Definition AS goes beyond slices and detector rows to address the overall versatility and usefulness of a CT scanner,” said Dr. Joseph Schoepf, associate professor of radiology and cardiology, and director of CT research and development at MUSC. "It truly allows you to adapt the CT scanning to your individual patients.”

The Somatom Definition AS provides tremendous benefit with the Adaptive Dose Shield technology, eliminating unnecessary over-radiation. "Siemens is constantly focused on improving diagnostic quality while reducing dose in computed tomography. Patient safety has consistently been, and still is, our number one priority. With our Somatom product family we continuously develop new ideas and solutions for maintaining ALARA [as low as reasonably achievable] guidelines to achieve success and to integrate these developments into our systems for dose reduction and improvement in patient safety,” remarked Peter Kingma, vice president, computed tomography, Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc.

Until now, many CT vendors have fallen prey to unnecessary dose both before and at the end of the spiral scan range, which has been a function of spiral multi-slice imaging. As detector size and slice counts grow, the "pre and post over scan range” problem becomes more acute, especially where older gantry designs are just updated with newer detector designs to save cost for the manufacturer. Only Siemens' unique Adaptive Dose Shield addresses this growing issue by dynamically blocking the unnecessary dose before and after the spiral scan, ensuring that the only dose applied to the patient is dose that is clinically relevant.

The system adapts to each patient's clinical situation and also opens an avenue to new applications in CT imaging. The unique Adaptive four-dimension (4D) spiral mode of the Somatom Definition AS is able to address functional imaging (perfusion images of blood flow over time) of whole organs. This allows Siemens to offer dynamic information of up to 27 cm. In the case of a stroke, physicians can use whole-organ perfusion imaging not only for a small part of the brain, but for all of it.

"A Somatom Definition CT scanner transforms itself into a stroke unit, a noninvasive cath lab, a therapy management tool for cancer patients, or an interventional suite--all according to the need of the individual patient,” said Mr. Kingma. "All of these advances work to improve the quality of patient management and overall efficiency of healthcare, while keeping the costs down.”

The system comes in multiple configurations, each of which is customized to a hospital's workflow and clinical needs, with a goal to make the most complex procedures routine. The technology combines multiple components in a dynamic manner: a large-volume coverage area with a 200-cm scan range and up to 300 msec rotation time, 78-cm gantry bore, and the ability to add a high-capacity 660-pound patient table.

These features allow even the most clinically challenging patients (i.e., trauma patients) to be imaged rapidly, from head to toe, without difficulty. The Definition AS is available in 40-slice, 64-slice, and 128-slice configurations. It can be field upgraded to other configurations with minimal downtime. This allows the technology to grow with the institution's needs while minimizing downtime and loss of service.

In addition to its excellent performance, the system is able to adapt to the space constraints many facilities face today. It requires very little floor space, with an 18-m2 footprint. This allows the system to fit into rooms that have traditionally been too small for high-end CT scanners.


Related Links:
Medical University of South Carolina
Siemens Medical Solutions