Toshiba America Medical Systems

Vantage is Toshiba’s newest MRI offering. The system, first shown as a work-in-progress at last year’s RSNA meeting, is a 1.5-tesla short-bore magnet that incorporates Toshiba’s gradient noise-suppression technology and parallel-acquisition protocol. Excelart Vantage began shipping in September 2003.

Toshiba plans to tout Vantage specifications designed to counter patient claustrophobia: The scanner has a 1.4-meter bore length and 65.5-cm patient aperture. Concerns about scanner noise are addressed by the company’s Pianissimo noise-reduction package, first introduced on other systems in the company’s MRI line.

Also included on Vantage is SPEEDER, Toshiba’s parallel imaging technique that uses multiple dedicated RF coils to achieve faster scanning speeds and better signal-to-noise ratios. Other Vantage specifications include gradients rated at 30 millitesla/meter amplitude, with possible slew rates of 50 tesla/meter/second or 130 T/m/s. Another advantage of the scanner is its high magnet homogeneity over a full 50-cm diameter spherical volume, according to the company.

Vantage's clinical applications include advanced functional EPI, non-contrast perfusion studies, and MR angiography. The scanner can also conduct high-resolution turbo spin echo, single-shot variations of turbo gradient spin echo (TGSE), multislab MRA, FASE 2-D/3-D ultra-fast turbo spin echo, and 2-D and 3-D T2-weighted imaging.