Toshiba Releases New CT System

Toshiba America Medical Systems Inc., based in Tustin, Calif., has released the Aquilion One Vision Edition computed tomography (CT) scanning system. According to the company, the new system offers a low-dose exam with a large bore, wide coverage, and thin slices.

The Aquilion is equipped with a gantry (the donut-shaped portion of the machine into which a patient is placed) rotation of 0.275 seconds, a 100 kilowatt generator and 320 detector rows (which create 640 unique image slices) covering a reported 16 centimeters in a single rotation, with slices as thin as 500 microns (0.5 millimeters). The system can accommodate more patients with its 78 centimeter bore and fast rotation, including bariatric and patients with high heart rates, Toshiba claims.

The system includes Toshiba’s third-generation iterative dose reconstruction software, Adaptive Iterative Dose Reduction 3D (known as AIDR 3D), which is designed to keep the radiation dose to a minimum.

“Aquilion One Vision Edition reduces risk and maximizes returns,” said Satrajit Misra, senior director of Toshiba’s CT business unit. “It is capable of imaging the entire brain and heart in a single rotation with 500-micron accuracy, and can capture both anatomical and functional data.”

Aquilion One Vision Edition has been installed at Fujita Health University in Japan; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) at National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.; Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre in the Netherlands; Monash Medical Centre Clayton, Southern Health in Australia; Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital in Hong Kong; and Iwate Medical University in Japan. Future installations include University Health Network—Toronto General Hospital in Canada and Rigshospitalet in Denmark.

Toshiba America Medical Systems markets, sells, distributes and services radiology and cardiovascular systems, including CT, MR, ultrasound, X-ray and cardiovascular equipment.