Please activate JavaScript!
Please install Adobe Flash Player, click here for download
ePaper created 2015-03-02, 10:26:30 | version 1.35.0
RADBOOK 201510 ◼ COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY RADBOOK 201510 ◼ COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY With the new version of the SOMATOM Definition Edge, Siemens Healthcare has created the basis for establishing the dual energy procedure in clinical routine. The innovative X-ray tube concept in the new CT scanner, enables simultaneous imaging at two different energy levels for the first time in single source com- puted tomography. Thanks to a novel user- and patient-friendly measurement method, information on tissue and other material can be obtained as well as traditional morphological data, even during examinations with high contrast media dynamics. This means that more patients will benefit from the added value of dual energy imaging. Single Source Dual Energy – how it works In dual energy imaging, the same region of the body is examined using two different energy levels. The two datasets offer more detailed information about tissue composition that goes beyond pure morphology. For instance, metal artifacts caused by implants such as artificial hips are reduced considerably, while tissue and bone structures can be displayed more clearly. However, in cases where data have been acquired using fast kV-switching or dual layer detector technology – dual energy imaging involved significant drawbacks. Single source dual energy images acquired with these methods were excluded for many important radiological use cases, because the tube does not emit the two energy spectra at the same time, only in succession through rapid switching or through spectra separation at the detector side after penetrating the patient. With kV-switching,thesegmentationofthemeasuringpointssignificantly impairs the image quality due to the limited data per energy level. At the same time, increased X-ray doses are inevitable because the dose cannot be modulated to reduce radiation. New source design splits the X-Ray Beam into two energy spectrums Not so with the TwinBeam Dual Energy technology from Health- care, in which the X-ray beam emitted is split into two different energy spectra before reaching the patient thanks to an innovative tube design.This means that the SOMATOM Definition Edge gener- ates the dual energy images at the same time. SOMATOM Definition Edge brings Dual Energy to routine CT Imaging A control study of a liver metastasis after microwave ablation treatment: A monoenergetic image at 50 keV (left) and a fused virtual non-contrast (VNC) / iodine image (right) show a hypodense lesion in the liver and in the right kidney. The image contrast is greatly increased by monoenergetic imaging. And both lesions show no significant enhancement in the fusedVNC / iodine image, therefore, residual tumor tissue can be confidently excluded and a kidney cyst can be diagnosed. © University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany