Radiology | Products

FDA CLEARANCE

Adaptive Radiation Therapy System

Siemens Medical Solutions (www.siemens.com/medical) has received FDA clearance for its ARTISTE™ multiple-modality system for adaptive radiation therapy. MVision™ 3D megavoltage cone-beam imaging provides outstanding soft-tissue resolution, especially in challenging cases, such as imaging large patients and patients with prostheses. The CTVision™ CT-on-rails system provides in-room diagnostic quality imaging with direct comparison of daily patient anatomy to original planning data.

With a small, 5 mm leaf thickness over the full-field, the 160 MLC™ multileaf collimator provides better conformity to tumor shape independent of tumor size. Its speed and low leakage reduces patient on-table time and dose to normal tissue. The open-design 550 TxT™ treatment table provides the clearance and mechanical strength to accommodate patients weighing up to 550 lbs.

FDA CLEARANCE

Faster Radiation Therapy System

Varian Medical Systems (www.varian.com) has received FDA clearance for its RapidArc™ radiotherapy hardware and treatment planning software, which enable image-guided, intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) to be performed two to eight times faster and more precisely than conventional therapy or helical tomotherapy.

RapidArc delivers a complete IMRT treatment in a single rotation of the machine around the patient, utilizing a sophisticated, proprietary algorithm that creates a finely-shaped IMRT dose distribution closely matching the size and shape of the tumor. The system works by simultaneously varying the speed with which the treatment machine rotates around the patient, the dimensions of the beam-shaping aperture and the rate at which the dose is delivered. RapidArc can reduce the amount of non-therapeutic radiation reaching healthy tissues during treatment.

NEW PRODUCT

Welded-seam Antimicrobial Pads

Patient Comfort Systems (www.patientcomfortsystems.com) has introduced advanced welded-seam technology into its line of antimicrobial pads for MR imaging systems. The technology uses heat welding to protect the inner foam core of the pad from penetration of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria or other biological contamination. Fraying, tears and gaps in stitching at the pad's seams, as well as the wearing away of coating material, can allow MRSA to penetrate and form a reservoir in the pad core, which cannot be adequately cleaned, posing a contamination risk to all patients who come into contact with the pad.

FDA CLEARANCE

Large Open-bore MR

Toshiba America Medical Systems (www.medical.toshiba.com) has received FDA clearance for the new open-bore 1.5 T Vantage Titan™ MR system. The open bore of the Vantage Titan is 18 percent larger than other 1.5 T systems, featuring a large 71-centimeter patient aperture and Pianissimo™ noise reduction technology.

The Vantage Titan's large clinical field-of-view is unique for its bore size and produces high-quality images without compromising homogeneity or overall imaging performance.