Multimodality vendor GE Healthcare of Chalfont St. Giles, U.K., is launching a new dual-head gamma camera targeted at the nuclear cardiology market.
Called Ventri, the system is a fixed 90º dual-head system optimized for stress perfusion studies, according to Karthik Kuppusamy, general manager for GE's Americas nuclear medicine, PET/CT, and cyclotron business. More than 50% of the nuclear medicine market is based on cardiology studies, with more than 10 million stress perfusion exams conducted each year in the U.S., he said.
Ventri incorporates design elements intended to increase patient comfort, such as a table with a 440-lb weight limit that can be lowered to a point where any patient can sit in it easily. The system also was designed to make it easy for nuclear medicine technologists to use, with features like a built-in camera that enables technologists to monitor patients in the exam room.
Ventri can be installed in an 8 x 10-foot room and includes built-in Ethernet support to enable GE to offer online support and remote training and diagnostics. The system uses the same Elite detector technology found on the company's Infinia and Millennium gamma cameras. It also has a ring-style gantry, and GE plans to add an attenuation-correction upgrade to the system in 2007.
GE began shipping Ventri commercially in mid-January and plans to highlight the system at next month's American College of Cardiology show. The system will be priced comparably to GE's Millennium MyoSight gamma camera, which will remain in the company's product line.
By AuntMinnie staff writers
February 1, 2006
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