CHICAGO - Fujifilm Medical Systems USA has announced the debut of FCR 5000MA, a new single-plate computed radiography reader featuring dual-side reading and 50-micron capability for digital mammography.
FCR 5000MA accepts all common cassette sizes and offers the dual-side reading and 50-micron reading capability in 18 x 24-cm and 24 x 30-cm sizes. Its dual-side reading capability allows captured x-ray information to be read from both sides of the imaging plate simultaneously, resulting in 100% higher detective quantum efficiency (DQE) and lower noise, according to the vendor.
FCR 5000MA also includes Fuji’s Multi-objective Frequency Processing (MFP) and Pattern Enhancement Processing for Mammography (PEM) technology. MFP simultaneously enhances detail in both dense and soft tissue areas of the breast for improved image quality, while PEM detects and improves the conspicuity of microcalcification clusters for easier visualization, according to Fuji. FCR 5000MA will be available in early 2001, but will not be available for mammography in the U.S. initially, according to the firm.
In other CR developments, Fuji unveiled FCR 5502D, a cassette-free digital x-ray table with dual-side reading technology. The FCR 5502D digital table is an elevator and four-way float top table, and can capture up to 168 imaging plates per hour.
In other news, Fuji has announced the renaming of its entire dry imager product line under the DryPix brand. The Stamford, CT-based vendor is also displaying its first new DryPix product, DryPix 1000.
DryPix 1000 is a tabletop imager fully compatible with CR, ultrasound, nuclear medicine, PACS, and other modalities, according to Fuji. The DryPix 1000 can print 10 x 14-inch and 8 x 10-inch films, and is compliant with DICOM print networks without the need for a print server, according to the company. A complete system including DryPix 1000, new thermal head technology (featuring an extended life), and modified film is slated to be available by the second quarter of 2001.
In PACS developments, Fuji has released version 2.0 of its Synapse PACS software. Synapse V2 offers several new features designed to enhance the vendor’s ability to perform sophisticated enterprise-wide PACS functions and deliver information access on-demand over slow networks, according to Fuji.
A new feature, Enterprise Multi-View, integrates a healthcare enterprise’s various physical locations with secure logins to control users’ ability to view information from different facilities. This allows a network of facilities -- with different HIS/RIS systems, radiology reading groups, or even physically separate databases -- to share information and communicate, according to Fuji.
Synapse V2 is also capable of supporting multiple server clusters, a feature that Fuji believes allows for additional uptime assurance for the PACS database. If one server fails, the other automatically takes over, according to the company.
Synapse Access Over Networks (AON) is an integrated suite of tools designed to allow for on-demand information access over the slowest of networks, according to Fuji. Synapse AON includes AON Subscription, which permits remote referring physicians, on-call radiologists, and other approved medical specialists to “subscribe” to selected sets of information through a secure intranet or Internet connection. Users can then quickly access this clinical information, including diagnostic quality images, by logging onto the network from any remote location using Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Another AON feature, AON Engine, is an advanced wavelet compression and decompression technology embedded in the Synapse DICOM and workstation software. In other V2 enhancements, Fuji now offers digital versatile disk (DVD) technology.
AuntMinnie.com staff writerNovember 27, 2000
Related RSNA Reading
Fuji to enter desktop CR market, November 26, 2000
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