Philips Unveils NeuroSuite for Minimally Invasive Neurological Procedures

Royal Philips NV has unveiled its NeuroSuite X-ray system for performing minimally invasive image-guided neurological procedures, and installed the system at Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden.

The system, built around the Philips AlluraClarity X-ray system, was developed to address the difficulty of visualizing ever smaller devices that have been coming out lately for minimally invasive intracranial work. The bi-plane system has two new detectors that work in combination to provide good coverage for navigation while offering high-resolution brain imaging with a relatively low radiation dose. The frontal FD20 X-ray detector provides imaging for navigation, resulting in live 2-D and 3-D visualization. The side detector, placed much closer to the head, delivers high resolution imaging of the brain on top of which the frontal detector’s data is overlaid.

“In image-guided interventions the ultimate goal is to see clearly and navigate effectively, while managing X-ray dose for patients, staff and clinicians,” said Ronald Tabaksblat, general manager of Interventional X-ray at Philips Healthcare. “Developed in collaboration with clinical partners aroung the world, Philips NeuroSuite has been designed for that purpose and underpins Philips’ global position in live-image guidance technologies.”

Neuroradiology is a branch of radiology that involves the diagnosis and minimally invasive treatment of the brain, head, neck and spine. These treatments require the insertion of a catheter, which must be navigated through a very narrow (vessels less than 2 mm wide) and tortuous vasculature to the treatment site with the aid of live image guidance. New devices (stents and flow diverters) offer new treatments for ischemic stroke or large neck aneurism, but their increasingly smaller designs make the devices more difficult to see with X-ray imaging. This can prevent additional challenges for placement and treatment assessment.

“in interventional neuroradiology the performance of the angiographic system is crucial to patient safety,” said Michael Soderman, associate professor and chief of Neuroangiography and Stereotaxy, Department of Neuroradiology at Karolinska University Hospital. “Philips’ NeuroSuite with a new 20-inch detector on the frontal plan, provides superb 3-D images and is big enough for spine imaging. On the lateral plane, the new 15-inch detector brings visualization of the complete cerebral vasculature, with reduced collision risks and enhanced projection freedom.”

At the heart of NeuroSuite is Philips AlluraClarity, lowering radiation dose by as much as 73 percent without compromising image quality, and VasoCT, which visualizes intracranial devices in vessel context and vessel morphology down to perforator vessels, according to Philips.

“Over the last years a lot of progress was made on high resolution device visualization,” said Professor Jacques Moret of the faculty of medicine Bichat-Beaujon at the University of Paris in France. “The next step in our collaboration with Philips is the NeuroSuite bringing enhanced vessel and device visualization and full head coverage. The new detector combination could be especially useful for stroke treatment.”

NeuroSuite currently is not available for sale in the United States.