Digital radiography developer CMT Medical Technologies of Haifa, Israel, brought both charge-coupled device (CCD) and flat-panel DR technology to showcase at the 2002 RSNA in Chicago. Leading the vendor’s product suite is its SmartSpot line of high-resolution radiography and fluoroscopy digital photospot systems.
SmartSpotRF is designed to process fluoroscopy and radiography images, eliminating the use of cassette filming and 105-mm spot cameras. The product features a CCD chip-enabled camera head capable of 1024 x 1024-pixel resolution and a 12-bit digitization depth. The camera iris control is computerized, and the system performs data digitization at the camera end for a better signal-to-noise ratio, said Jacob Heit, director of marketing for CMT.
"By performing simultaneous acquisition, processing, filming, and storage of the image we can ensure a higher image quality and lower dose to both the patient and the operator," Heit said.
The unit permits a radiography acquisition rate of up to 7.5 frames per minute and a continuous fluoroscopy acquisition rate of 30 frames per second. It comes with CMT’s proprietary processing and display boards, a PCI-based workstation for high throughput, and software based on the Microsoft Windows NT platform. The workstation permits storage of up to 20 GB (approximately 8,500 1024 x 1024 10-bit images, according to the company) of image data, with optional 9.4-GB DVD cartridges available for offline storage.
The software features automatic window and level capabilities, anatomically programmed protocols, user-selectable gamma correction, and offline image subtraction. It also boasts window polarity inversion, zoom, pan, scroll, magnification, annotation, cine loop, and electronic shutter capabilities. DICOM 3.0 connectivity is available as an option, Heit said.
"For users looking for a standalone system, we didn’t see any reason to make them pay for feature that they wouldn’t be using. However, all our products are fully DICOM 3.0 compatible, and enabling connectivity is as simple as flipping a switch," he explained.
Two monitors, a 17-inch color 1600 x 1200-pixel workstation and a 20-inch monochrome 1280 x 1024 in-room unit, provide diagnostic and operator displays, respectively. A remote-user keypad that permits single and sequence acquisition selection, save last image hold (LIH) image, image review, automatic cine display, gray-level reversal, zoom, subtract, and mask selection rounds out the system.
A SmartSpotDSA version of the product is available for angiography and special-procedure suites. The system provides 36 GB of storage, online road-mapping, an automatic injector interface, programmable anatomical protocols, and image-processing and manipulation tools optimized for angiography.
"A typical study is processed in a matter of seconds using either logarithmic or linear transformations. Among the angio package’s main features are mask selection, landmarking, interactive mask averaging, group subtraction, and automatic or manual pixel shifting," Heit said.
CMT also spotlighted its SmartRad DR system at the RSNA show. The system is based on the Pixium 4600 flat-panel detector manufactured by Trixell of Moirans, France. A typical configuration consists of a detector mounted in a special housing together with an ionization chamber for automatic exposure control and a grid, a power supply, a workstation interfaced to the detector and the x-ray system, and a monitor. SmartRad is available either as an upgrade to existing film-based x-ray systems, or as a subsystem for integration into a new DR system, Heit said.
Images are available about 5 seconds after x-ray exposure, and can then be transferred via DICOM to a PACS, or printed as a hard copy. The CMT workstation has an 80-GB hard drive for storage, an acquisition board, preset study types that automatically apply image-processing parameters, and a full set of user-adjustable image processing and manipulation tools. A 21-inch color monitor, with a 75-Hz scan rate and a 1600 x 1200 resolution, completes the package.
The firm has been selling its products in Europe, the Middle East, and the Far East, and has opened a U.S. office in Valley Stream, NY. As part of its commitment to global marketing, all of the firm's software is unicode-based, permitting multiple language versions such as Japanese and Korean.
In addition to direct sales, CMT serves as an OEM for other radiology vendors. The company, which had sales of $20.3 million and net income of $4.3 million in 2001, is traded on the Nouveau Marché of the Paris Stock Exchange, and is also listed on the IT CAC French stock market index.
By Jonathan S. BatchelorAuntMinnie.com staff writer
December 30, 2002
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