Platinum chromium alloy enhances design
Boston Scientific Corporation has commenced enrolment of a targeted 1,500 patients for the Taxus Perseus clinical trials, planned to take place in 100 international centres.
Medical technology
Ready for action: The 17.5 kg heart-lung machine
The Lifebridge B2T (bridge-to-transport) is the first, fully portable emergency life support system for patients suffering cardiogenic shock, or those showing signs of imminent cardiogenic shock.
Moscow's 'Medical Fair'
The key event of the year 2007 September 19-22, 2007 Moscow, Manezh Exhibition Center
The World of Health IT
Austria - Following the first World of Health IT Conference & Exhibition last year, the organisers have decided that the 2007 meeting (22-25 October) will 'move on from exploring fact-based IT solutions to examining health IT in the wider context of health delivery'.
IT for Istanbul
Turkey - The recently opened 74-bed Florence Nightingale Kiziltoprak Hospital, which has three operating rooms and 10 ICU beds, is one of four hospitals in a Turkish healthcare network.
New Technology Academy opened in Germany
Hitachi Medical Systems has opened its European Technology Academy in Dusseldorf
Needle-free drug delivery device scoops top award
The Glide Solid Dose Injector (SDI), the needle-free drug delivery system that injects drugs in solid dosage form into the skin, has contributed to its manufacturer, Glide Pharma, winning the Best Business Award at the 2007 Medical Futures Innovation Awards.
Innovative solution for hearing loss
Otologics' Carina could improve the quality of life for patients suffering from hearing loss. The fully implantable hearing device uses a transducer to move the middle ear bones - much like the eardrum causes the middle ear bones to vibrate in response to sound wave. Carina implantation surgery takes about three hours and is an easy procedure with low surgical risks. (The whole article is only…
When B Mode has an Image Problem
Ever heard this from a patient? 'Wouldn't it be great if it was in colour.' It's true; B mode lacks the glamour of Doppler. We're guilty of it ourselves, we love Doppler. How frequently do we hear 'did you put colour on that'? When was the last time you asked 'how much temporal smoothing did you use'? And yet every time I watch others scan I witness Sonographers scanning from various angles,…
Monitoring of Surgical Bypasses
The aortocoronary bypass is an important surgical method for multivessel coronary revascularization, especially in the presence of complex lesions and in diabetic patients. It is can improve the prognosis of patients with three vessel disease and with left ventricular dysfunction1 . With regard to the type of graft used, bypasses are split into venous and arterial types. The use of venous…
Cardiac MSCT Study Assessment with Sure Plaque-Software
Ongoing refinement of modern helical multi-slice CT (MSCT) scanners offers the opportunity for very high temporal and spatial resolution thin-slice data set acquisition. The reconstruction techniques offered (multisegment reconstruction) result in improved temporal resolution down to 40-200 ms and thus also reducing motion artifacts. The SURECardio software package makes possible optimum studies…
Clinical Experience with a Superconducting MRI Scanner
Following the installation of a 0.5-T superconducting magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system at our hospital in 1987, we have been performing a large number of examinations as a key regional hospital serving the city of Muroran, Hokkaido, and surrounding areas. However, compared with more recently developed MRI systems, 0.5-T systems tend to have poorer image quality and a restricted range of…
Endoscopic Ultrasound Transducer with FNA Biopsy Capability
Endoscopic Ultrasound with Fine Needle Aspiration Biopsy (FNAB) capability is relatively new for Toshiba. Recently the company has introduced a transducer enabling gastroenterologists to perform these kinds of examinations. Dr. Paul Fockens (PhD), Director of Endoscopy at the Academic Medical Centre (AMC) of the University of Amsterdam, is an expert in this field. He has been Director of…
Selenium-Based Flat Panel X-ray Detector for Digital Fluoroscopy and Radiography
We have succeeded in developing the first selenium-based flat panel X-ray detector for digital fluoroscopy and radiography. This flat panel X-ray detector efficiently captures X-rays that have passed through the patient's body and converts them directly to digital dynamic and static images. It has been confirmed that images with high spatial resolution and contrast can be obtained. The detector…
Sure Start
The use of state-of-the-art helical CT scanners allows for ultra fast examination of larger regions of the body. Due to the short examination time, optimum utilization of the intravenous contrast medium bolus is of extreme importance. The Sure Start function grants this in a very simple way.
Technical Insights into the Dual-slice CT
In 1999, the Aquillion/MULTI and Asteion/MULTI multi-slice systems with highly integrated 34-channel detector system, both consisting of a total of 30,464 detector elements, were introduced. On the basis of such a structured detector matrix, a new image reconstruction procedure was used. This so called MUSCOT (Multislice Conebeam Tomography) procedure made the dream of an isotropic voxel in the…
Learning from the Human Brain
In today's high end diagnostics and clinical research ultrasound systems are required that combine outstanding performance with excellent ease of use. With APLlO, Toshiba has developed a new platform that meets the highest demands for diagnostic confidence and workflow optimization. It is developed based on a groundbreaking new system architecture. This has made the implementation of numerous…
Magic Microbubbles
The introduction of a new generation of microbubbles has created opportunities for ultrasound, and this is particularly true in the liver, where study of the arterial, venous and sinusoidal phases with an agent such as SonoVue at low ultrasound power levels (Iow mechanical index, MI) provides unique information. Similar diagnostic advantages can be obtained in diseases of the kidneys, spleen and…
High Resolution Protocol Optimization
Since the introduction of multi-slice computerized tomography (MS-CT), several authors have reported an increased exposure to radiation when using the manufacturer-specific protocols compared with the previous technique of single-slice computerized tomography (SS-CT). On the basis of comprehensive dose measurements conducted on a phantom, a study by S. M. Giacomuzzi et al reported that the mean…
The Four Pillars of Successful Digital Networking
During the past several years, the term DICOM has become a phrase in the digital world of radiological diagnostics. For image production and processing as well as in organizational and administrative processing, DICOM has proven itself to be the crucial "traffic junction." The demands for a common image and communications standard follow from the development of new generations of…
Tissue Doppler Imaging for assessment of pseudonormalization of the mitral inflow pattern
Impairment of left ventricular relaxation may lead to pulmonary congestion and symptoms of heart failure even in patients with preserved systolic function. Doppler echocardiography has become the non-invasive method of choice for the assessment of both systolic and diastolic dysfunction. However, Doppler-derived parameters such as mitral inflow velocity, deceleration time and isovolumic…
Aquilion 16 - A new CT concept in optimized patient care
Two university hospitals in Germany and Japan were the first worldwide to receive the Aquilion 16 high resolution computed tomograph (CT) from Toshiba Medical Systems for simultaneous recording of 16 body slices with extremely high image resolution. A computed tomography Aquilion 16 was put into operation on October 7, 2002 at the central campus of Charite Berlin (Figure 1). This is the third…
The Perfect Partnership
The Ultimax with image intensifier & CCD camera technology is already well established as a premium multipurpose digital imaging end interventional system. The addition of DynaDirect FPD technology with its exceptional high-resolution performance simply makes the Ultimax the most advanced high performance multipurpose digital imaging system available. The combination of the Ultimax and…
The Wonderful World of Images Report on the Workshop
Tissue Doppler Imaging (TDI) and contrast echocardiography open up new possibilities for exactly representing and assessing functional cardiac disturbances. This was the topic discussed by Dr. Harald Becher of John Radcliff Hospital, Oxford, and Dr. Jörg Strotmann of the University Clinic Würzburg in the framework of the Toshiba workshop “New approaches in echocardiography” at the European…
Head and Neck Imaging
Multislice computed tomography (MS CT), which was introduced to clinical imaging as fourslice detectors in 1998 has fully proven its superior performance over conventional scanner technology. For example, it provides optimized resolution of detail and increased scan speed. Simultaneously, this technology has opened new indications for computed tomography, for example, in heart imaging. However,…