GE Healthcare introduced a version of its Discovery CT750 HD scanner optimized for cardiac scanning at low radiation doses at the American College of Cardiology (ACC) meeting in Chicago.
Discovery CT750 HD Freedom Edition is designed to address the main challenges of cardiac imaging: coronary motion, high heart rates, calcium blooming, plaque composition, and accurate myocardial perfusion, according to GE.
The scanner incorporates intelligent motion correction for high heart rates with its SnapShot Freeze capability: By precisely detecting vessel motion and velocity, SnapShot Freeze can determine actual vessel position and correct the effects of motion artifact in the CT image.
Other features include Calcium Freedom, which enhances coronary visualization using GE's Gemstone Spectral Imaging (GSI) Cardiac mode. GE has merged its SnapShot Pulse technology with GSI's rapid kV switching, which allows a registered spectral CT dataset to be produced.
This dataset is then decomposed into material density images and synthesized into monochromatic energies. With this capability, it is possible to acquire coronary images with calcium suppression of patients with high calcium burden.
The scanner was shown as a work-in-progress at the ACC meeting; U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance is pending.
