GE Healthcare has received clearance from the Food and Drug Administration to market its Excite platform, an MRI technology that speeds up the data-processing pipeline to enable more advanced exams, the Waukesha, WI-based vendor said.
The new technology, for GE's Signa 1.5-tesla and 3-tesla MR systems, enables simultaneous imaging in multiple channels in increments of 16. As channels are added (in totals of 16, 32, 48, 64, and more), image processing power increases in proportion, the company said.
The coil elements that detect the signal, the receivers that digitize the signal, and the array processors that perform calculations are also scaled together so that "massively simultaneous" imaging can be performed without image processing delays, GE said.
To date, the original Excite technology has enabled three targeted MR applications, according to GE: Vibrant for bilateral breast imaging in a single exam; Tricks for contrast-enhanced angiography of the legs; and Propeller for brain imaging that is resistant to motion artifacts.
New targeted studies will include vascular images of the lower legs utilizing a new 32-element peripheral vascular coil, images of the liver with shorter breath holds, and real-time MR imaging of the heart at the speed of ultrasound, without the need for breath-holding or ECG gating. The application enables cardiac imaging at 20 frames per second, GE said.
By AuntMinnie.com staff writers
August 31, 2004
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