GE Healthcare

(Booth 1729) Breast imaging will be a highlight in the MRI section of GE's booth. The Chalfont St. Giles, U.K., company will also introduce the next generation of its High Definition MRI platform.

GE's portfolio of breast MRI techniques include VIBRANT, a bilateral imaging technique that enables users to scan both breasts on a patient in a single visit, producing both anatomical and kinetic information. BREASE is a breast spectroscopy application that can improve the ability to characterize breast lesions by displaying choline concentrations.

Meanwhile, an eight-channel breast array coil supports high signal-to-noise ratios, access for interventional procedures, and integration with the CADstream computer-aided detection (CAD) software for breast MRI from Confirma of Bellevue, WA.

GE has adapted the Vanguard breast table developed by Sentinelle Medical of Toronto to work with its Signa HDx 1.5-tesla MRI scanner. In addition, the detachable patient table on Signa MR systems enables users to transform an HDx scanner into a dedicated breast imaging and interventional system. The Vanguard breast table also features variable coil geometry (VCG) for optimal positioning of coil elements, GE said.

In 3-tesla scanning, look for GE to highlight its Signa HDx 3.0T scanner. The company will talk up the scanner's XVRE volume-reconstruction engine, which enables new XV (expanded volume) clinical applications that use GE technologies such as ASSET and GEM, a hybrid acceleration technique that uses variable sampling to provide faster image acceleration.