At RSNA 2009, the leitmotiv for CT vendors was “software innovations for dose reduction”. The main manufacturers demonstrated numerous technical advances in both software and hardware, summarized herein.
GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare introduced new capabilities for its Discovery CT750 HD scanner. These include a dual-energy imaging mode as well as radiation dose reduction techniques. The CT750 HD scanner, launched in 2008, contains a novel detector based on garnets (called Gemstone detector). This year, GE Healthcare introduced Gemstone Spectral Imaging, a dual-energy imaging technique made possible by the Gemstone detector. Dual-energy imaging permits the characterization of tissue composition from the attenuation differences recorded with two energy spectra. GE dual-energy acquisition is based on fast kVp switching with every other view. Gemstone Spectral Imaging became available in October 2009 and has already been installed in approximately 20 sites.