Large Bore CT System Designed for Oncology Applications

A new computed tomography (CT) system is demonstrating itself to be one of the most effective barge bore scanners for oncology applications. The wide gantry aperture of 90 cm combined with a true scan field of 70 cm provides extreme exam flexibility for CT simulation, bariatric, trauma, and interventional procedures.
Aquilion LB also features Toshiba Medical System’s (Tokyo, Japan) Quantum PLUS detector technology. Precise details are seen by 16-row data acquisition with 0.5-mm thin slices, providing excellent low contrast visualization and 350 micron spatial resolution. The next generation not only features all of this, but has been enhanced with the latest cutting-edge technologies to improve patient care at a reduced dose.


AIDR 3D (adaptive iterative dose reduction in three dimensions [3D]) provides a dose reduction in clinical setting by up to 75%, when compared to scans performed with traditional Filtered Back Projection (FBP) techniques. The AIDR 3D algorithm is designed to work in both the raw data and reconstruction domains and optimizes image quality for each particular body region. AIDR 3D is fully integrated in SUREExposureTM 3D (the automatic exposure control software) for optimized dose control and adds only seconds to total reconstruction times. Moreover, newly designed hardware maximizes reconstruction speed in all applications.
Double-slice technology allows 32 images to be generated in a single rotation without dose penalty. The acquired volume data can be reconstructed at double density, resulting in sharper images and provides vastly superior 3D multiplanar reconstructions (MPRs).
The respiratory-gating system minimizes image artifacts associated with respiratory motion and provides effective 4D CT-gated images to evaluate respiratory motion. Respiratory-gated scanning is available in both prospective and retrospective scan modes, and can be applied for all patients, even those with a slow respiratory cycle as low as six breaths per minute.

The new phase averaging function enables stacking of multiphase data to demonstrate tumor movement in one static image. Furthermore, the sophisticated 4D viewer includes a target tracking function so the region of interest is always shown in-plane during cine playback.

The next-generation Aquilion LB system offers fast and flexible workflow. New console architecture, remote access by a network personal computer (PC) equipped with SUREXtension, provides direct access to the main console for instant reviewing of patient data, without affecting the main console.
The new architecture and visualization of system were presented at the European Society for Radiotherapy & Oncology (ESTRO) 2012 congress in Barcelona, Spain, May 9-13, 2012.

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