GE Medical Systems has incorporated several new applications into its Excite MR platform. The new features, being shown this week at the annual International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) meeting in Toronto, include the Waukesha, WI-based vendor's Accelerator data management program for additional processing power and faster workflow.
GE has also debuted Propeller, a pulse-sequence technique. Based on fast spin echo, Propeller technology acquires data in radial blades that rotate, making it helpful for stroke cases, pediatric patients, or anyone who can't remain motionless during the exam, according to the vendor. GE said that Propeller produces a 25% to 75% improvement in contrast-to-noise ratio, and leads to reduced tissue-to-air image distortion.
Another new feature, VIBRANT (volume imaging for breast assessment), produces sagittal images of both breasts in the same amount of time used by traditional techniques to image a single breast, GE said. VIBRANT integrates a fat-suppression technology with GE's Asset parallel imaging approach.
TRICKS (time-resolved imaging of contrast kinetics) is GE's application for assessing blood clots and other vascular diseases in the lower extremities. A dynamic scan, TRICKS eliminates the temporal factor of the MRA exam, acquiring all data for an MR angiography procedure, GE said. The vendor is also rolling out new eight-channel surface coils, include neurovascular, torso-pelvic, cardiac, and CTL spine arrays.
GE said that it has installed Excite on more than 300 of its Signa 1.5-tesla MR scanners around the world since last year.
By AuntMinnie.com staff writersJuly 15, 2003
Related Reading
GE scores big Canadian PACS order, July 15, 2003
GE Medical revenues up 9%, July 14, 2003
GE debuts Centricity PACS 2.0, July 10, 2003
Positron, GE in cardiac PET swap, July 9, 2003
GE lands Morton Plant Mease Health Care, June 19, 2003
Copyright © 2003 AuntMinnie.com
