India's first 64-slice CT was commissioned last week at Dr Jankharia's Imaging Centre, a private radiology practice in Mumbai. The model installed was Siemens Somatom Sensation Cardiac 64.
The installation was followed by a high-profile function organised by Siemens on Saturday that was attended by radiologists from across India. India beat China to become the first country in Asia to install this model of the scanner, according to D. Ragavan, executive vice president of medical solutions at Siemens.
So far only 50 of the systems have been installed worldwide, said Bernd Ohnesorge, vice president of CT marketing and sales at Siemens AG. The scanner was first introduced at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) meeting in 2003, and was recently launched commercially, in September 2004.
India is the fifth-largest CT market for Siemens, the first and second being U.S and China, respectively. Data collated by the vendor show over 3,500 CT coronary angiographies have been performed in India to date on Siemens systems. "Cardiac applications are the key driver for 64-slice CT in India," Ragavan said.
A product launch Siemens is planning at RSNA 2004 -- a dual-slice CT scanner at the price of a single-slice system -- will help move price-sensitive markets such as India from single-slice to dual-slice scanners. The launch is also targeted at the growing teleradiology market, which is more focused on basic CT, according Ohnesorge.
Single-slice and dual-slice CT systems constitute the majority of the CT market in India.
The 64-slice model from Siemens has attracted a lot of debate worldwide because it has only 32 physical detector rows, unlike competing models from other manufacturers that have 64 detector rows. The system uses a method of toggling the x-ray source to enable the tube to produce two overlapping x-ray beams, which are read out simultaneously on the scanner's 32-channel detectors.
By AuntMinnieIndia.com staff writers
November 9, 2004
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