News | Press Release
April 16, 2013
TOSHIBA'S 2013 INTERNATIONAL CT SYMPOSIUM - POST MEETING REPORT
TOSHIBA’S 2013 INTERNATIONAL CT SYMPOSIUM – POST MEETING REPORT
Toronto, Ontario, April 16, 2013 – The Toshiba 2013 International CT Symposium was held this year in Toronto, at the Stage West Ramada Plaza Hotel. The meeting ran from April 12-13th with a series of lectures focused on the challenges and clinical impact of volumetric and helical CT imaging, from head to toe. The comprehensive two day program allowed participants to share their experiences and update their knowledge. The conference was well attended with 190 registrants and 13 highly regarded speakers from leading hospitals from around the world.
The symposium included 14 oral presentations. These presentations provided an essential opportunity for the expert and newcomer alike to be taught by practicing experts on a wide range of topics from improvements in lowering dose to clinical CT applications from brain and abdominal imaging to lung, cardiac and MSK dynamic joint imaging. Below are some of the conference highlights.
Integration of dose reduction technologies for optimal dose management
Consultant radiologist at Royal Bournemouth Hospital Dr. Russell Bull said “The Aquilion One Cardiac CT has really changed our practice. The Aquilion One offers the benefit of single beat, single rotation, one single block of data with no step artifacts at very low radiation dose, and very high spatial resolutions (320 x 0.5mm detectors). The Aquilion One works in all heart rhythms, including Atrial Fibrillation. The reduction in radiation dose, reduced scan times, increased patient throughput and image quality has enabled a huge expansion in our service.”
“It has revolutionized what we do – with the Aquilion One, the most difficult CT examination becomes the easiest – and always at very low radiation doses. With these kind of doses, image quality and throughput, I believe cardiac CT will become routine in the emergency room for evaluation of acute chest pain. AIDR 3D is a really big game changer - the biggest drawback of CT which is dose, is not an issue anymore. Very low radiation doses on ‘standard’ as well as ‘high end’ scanners is the biggest change in CT since multislice.“
Dr. Steven D. Wolff, Director of Carnegie Hill Radiology presented many cases including an example of a patient with an abdominal aortic aneurysm comparing scans with Toshiba’s Aquilion PRIME (DLP = 364 mGy-cm sc) to the previous system (DLP = 1506 mGy-cm) concluding “You can see the images are of similar quality but the dose was more than 75% less because of our using iterative reconstruction. This has advantages in other areas as well such as coronary CTA where we can achieve low doses, citing another case example, a patient with atypical chest pain where it was possible to rule out coronary artery disease, with the dose from the CTA was only 1.1 mSv.”
With AIDR 3D, Toshiba has taken its dose reduction technology to the next level, allowing dose reduction to be easier and exams to be safer said Professor Alain Blum, chief of radiology, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire, Nancy, France. “Using AIDR 3D, the dose with this type of acquisition remains below the diagnostic reference level. AIDR 3D is a fine solution to dramatically reduce X-ray dose and improve image quality.”
Dr. Daniel Podberesky, Chief of Thoracoabdominal Imaging at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, presented a study on pediatric abdominal CT exams stating “the use of advanced iterative reconstruction techniques, such as AIDR 3D, on pediatric abdominal CT exams allows radiation dose reductions of ~55% compared to standard FBP (filtered back projection) while maintaining equivalent subjective diagnostic image quality scores across a spectrum of body sizes.” “The 320-detector volume CT scanner is fast – and is resulting in significantly lower doses to patients. The image quality is absolutely excellent. You need to think of this volume CT technology as a completely new modality, enabling novel imaging techniques. We are just starting to touch the tip of the iceberg on what volume CT and dynamic imaging will allow in both adults and kids.”
4 D CT – Aquilion Vision Initial Experience Using High Speed True Volume CT
“The faster rotation time permits one beat cardiac imaging up to 75 BPM. ” said Dr. John Troupis, Co Unit Head of Cardiac CT and the Unit Head of Musculoskeletal imaging at Monash Medical Centre, Melbourne, Australia. Dr. Troupis also shared a case example of a patient where a Cardiac CTA scan was performed to rule out coronary artery disease (70 year old male with a BMI 21.6). The coronary cardiac CT-low dose perfusion CTA clearly showed LAD & LCX stenosis. The stress perfusion images effectively demonstrated a perfusion defect in the anterior and anterolateral walls of the myocardium corresponding to the myocardial supply from the LAD and LCX arteries. The faster rotation time contributed to superior imaging in the end-systolic phase. AIDR 3D was integrated into the automatic exposure control software, which prospectively calculates the tube current for each examination based on our preferred reference image quality. Quite simply there is no guess work needed, and the perfect balance of image quality at reduced dose is completely automated with consistent results.”
The symposium concluded with a round table discussion on the future of CT technology enabling the speaker panel to hear the voices from the ground. Many great ideas were expressed, providing an effective way to intensify and improve the collaboration with all team members involved in patient care. The real success of the conference was the quality of the presentations and the response of the participants. The results of the post conference survey have yet to be analyzed, but the individual comments received have been very positive on both major metrics (quality of the lectures and the value of the conference to the participants). The symposium lecture videos are available for viewing at www.toshiba-medical.ca.
Toshiba wishes to thank all of the conference speakers for making the 2013 International CT Symposium a wonderful success:
- Professor Alain Blum - CHU Nancy, France
- Dr. Russell Bull - Royal Bournemouth Hospital, UK
- Dr. Marcus Chen - NIH, USA
- Dr. Catherine Coolens - UHN, Toronto, Canada
- Dr. Bernice Hoppel - Toshiba Medical Research, USA
- Dr. Cheemun Lum - The Ottawa Hospital, Ontario, Canada
- Dr. John Mayo - UBC, Vancouver General Hospital, CAN
- Dr. Narinder Paul - UHN, Toronto, Canada
- Dr. Daniel Podberesky - Cincinnati Children's Hosp, USA
- Prof. Mathias Prokop - UMC Nijmegen, Netherlands
- Professor Patrik Rogalla - UHN, Toronto, Canada
- Dr. John Troupis - Monash Medical Centre, Australia
- Dr. Steven Wolff - Carnegie Hill Radiology, NY, USA
To access the learning material from the Toshiba 2013 International CT Symposium, please visit www.toshiba-medical.ca
About Toshiba of Canada Limited, Medical Systems Division
With headquarters in Markham, Ontario, Toshiba of Canada Limited, Medical Systems Division (TCL), markets, sells, distributes and services radiology and cardiovascular systems, including CT, MR, ultrasound, X-ray and cardiovascular equipment, and coordinates clinical diagnostic imaging research for all modalities in Canada. For more information, visit the TCL Medical Systems Division website at www.toshiba-medical.ca
About Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation
Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation is a leading worldwide provider of medical diagnostic imaging systems and comprehensive medical solutions, such as CT, X-ray and vascular, ultrasound, nuclear medicine and MRI systems, as well as information systems for medical institutions. Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation has been providing medical products for over 80 years. Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of Toshiba. Visit Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation’s website at www.toshibamedicalsystems.com.
About Toshiba
Toshiba Corporation, a Fortune 500 company, channels world-class capabilities in advanced electronic and electrical products and systems into five strategic business domains: Energy & Infrastructure, Community Solutions, Healthcare Systems & Services, Electronic Devices & Components, and Lifestyles Products & Services. Guided by the principles of The Basic Commitment of the Toshiba Group, “Committed to People, Committed to the Future,” Toshiba promotes global operations towards securing “Growth Through Creativity and Innovation” and is contributing to the achievement of a world in which people everywhere live in a safe, secure and comfortable society. Founded in Tokyo in 1875, today’s Toshiba is at the heart of a global network of over 590 consolidated companies employing over 200,000 people worldwide, with annual sales surpassing 6.5 trillion yen (US$63 billion). To find out more about Toshiba, visit www.toshiba.co.jp/index.htm.
