GE Medical Systems Announces Advanced MR Imaging Technologies That Demonstrate Unprecedented Resolution
New Technologies Greatly Improve Diagnoses,
Further Enhancing EXCITE™ MR Platform;
EXCITE Installed Base Has Grown to More Than 300 in a Single Year
WAUKESHA, Wis. and Toronto – GE Medical Systems, a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), today unveiled advanced magnetic resonance (MR) imaging techniques for the GE EXCITE platform that provide unprecedented resolution and speed for imaging of the breasts, lower extremity vasculature and stroke. The technology is being showcased this week at the annual International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) meeting being held in Toronto.
GE EXCITE technology, integrated with new, leading-edge imaging techniques significantly improves diagnoses of diseases by allowing radiologists to see critical areas of MR images previously compromised by such things as poor circulation, and patient motion. These new technologies allow patients to complete an MR exam in significantly less time than with traditional systems. This is especially important for people who have difficulty remaining motionless for long periods of time, such as young children.
“Typically, in about one-third of cases, brain MR images will have some kind of
artifact that interferes with image quality or interpretation,” said Lawrence N. Tanenbaum, M.D., Section Chief of MR, CT and Neuroradiology at Edison Imaging at JFK Medical Center, located in the New Jersey Neuroscience Institute in Edison, N.J. “In past brain MR studies, we acquired many great images, some good images, and some unsatisfactory images because of patient motion or metal in a patient’s body. When using Propeller, we always get great images. It takes patient variability out of the equation.”
GE Medical Systems introduced the EXCITE platform in May 2002. It is the industry’s first complete end-to-end redesign of the MR imaging data pipeline resulting in high quality images and increased speed for enhanced productivity. Facilities with EXCITE are finding they can now complete four MR patient exams in the same amount of time that it used to take to complete three exams.
Since last year, GE has already installed the proprietary EXCITE technology on more than 300 GE Signa 1.5 Tesla MR scanners in hospitals and imaging centers throughout the world. To further its commitment to this platform, GE is also incorporating a data management technology into the EXCITE system called Accelerator™. This technology provides additional processing power, resulting in a faster workflow of storing, archiving and networking images. The power and speed of the GE EXCITE system is critical since, depending on the imaging technique, up to 10 times more data is acquired as compared to a traditional system.
“The introduction of these new imaging techniques significantly enhances EXCITE’s performance and reinforces what we said last year, that EXCITE is the MR platform of the future,” said Dennis Cooke, General Manager of GE Medical Systems’ Global MR business. “The complete EXCITE system is a major step forward towards eliminating the compromise between speed and resolution in challenging imaging environments. Physicians can more effectively diagnose conditions and provide better care while patients experience a more comfortable and faster MR exam.”
PROPELLER
PROPELLER incorporates a new pulse sequence technology based on Fast Spin Echo that acquires data in radial blades that rotate. In addition to evaluating stroke patients, PROPELLER is an ideal technology for pediatric patients or anyone in distress who cannot remain motionless during the exam. PROPELLER has an extremely low sensitivity to motion and improves the contrast-to-noise ratio by 25 to 75 percent and significantly reduces tissue-to-air image distortions.
As a result, physicians can clearly see specific areas of the brain that were previously compromised either by a patient’s movement, which resulted in blurry images, or by the presence of dental work, craniotomies or other abnormalities that could impact the magnetic field.
However, PROPELLER also requires five times the processing power when compared to conventional systems. Therefore, EXCITE’s high data throughput capability is necessary to make PROPELLER technology clinically feasible.
VIBRANT
VIBRANT (Volume Imaging for BReast AssessmeNT) produces high quality sagittal images of both breasts in the same amount of time that it previously took traditional techniques to image a single breast. Women diagnosed with breast cancer can, for the first time, have both breasts imaged in a single MR visit. This bi-lateral breast technique integrates a patented fat suppression technology with GE’s parallel imaging technology called ASSET. However, VIBRANT requires about four times more processing power than traditional systems, and therefore is made clinically possible because of EXCITE’s data processing capability.
In previous contrast-aided MR breast exams, only one breast at a time could be
imaged and patients had to wait a minimum of four hours before having the second breast
imaged in order to allow the contrast agent to clear their system.
“Before VIBRANT, we always did one breast at a time because we couldn’t get adequate fat suppression on both sides simultaneously, and patients had to return for a second exam,” said Tanenbaum. “With VIBRANT, we get fast, high-resolution, dynamic assessment of both breasts simultaneously. This allows bilateral breast imaging on the same day without compromise.”
TRICKS
TRICKS (Time Resolved Imaging of Contrast KineticS) is an ideal imaging application to determine blood clots and other vascular diseases in the lower extremities. In the past, it was extremely difficult to obtain the exact timing of a magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) exam in order to capture the correct blood flow in the arteries, especially in patients who had poor circulation in the lower legs. Patients could potentially be subjected to additional exams and contrast agents as a result, or physicians could be forced to read exams with inadequate contrast. TRICKS leverages the powerful processing power of EXCITE since the technique requires about ten times the data volume and 12 times the data processing power of conventional methods.
TRICKS eliminates the temporal factor of the MRA exam. Just as a video camera records all movement of an event from beginning to end, so can TRICKS acquire all data for an MRA, starting from the time the contrast agent is injected into the patient to the final flow from arteries to veins. This dynamic scan results in higher resolution and contrast while capturing the exact moment physicians need to evaluate.
“TRICKS is a reconstruction –intensive algorithm that was not practical before the advent of EXCITE technology,” said Tanenbaum. “In extremity angiography, particularly below the knee, it helps us more completely visualize the blood vessels as they fill. Prior to EXCITE and TRICKS, some 30 percent of MR extremity angiography exams delivered results that were in some way unsatisfactory. That does not even include cases where exams failed to show important information that I did not even suspect was missing.”
New Coils
In addition to the introduction of new applications, GE is also unveiling new 8-channel surface coils. Eight channels are optimized for parallel imaging techniques, improving the signal-to-noise ratio and resulting in higher resolution of the images.
The new 8-channel coils include Neurovascular, Torso-Pelvic, Cardiac, and CTL Spine arrays. These new coils expand GE’s current offering, which include a 12-channel body coil and 8-channel brain coil.
About GE Medical Systems
GE Medical Systems is a $9 billion global leader in medical imaging, interventional procedures, healthcare services, and information technology. Its offerings include networking and productivity tools, clinical information systems, patient monitoring systems, surgery and vascular imaging, conventional and digital X-ray, computed tomography, electron beam tomography, magnetic resonance, ultrasound and bone mineral densitometry, positron emission tomography, nuclear medicine, and a comprehensive portfolio of clinical and business services. For more than 100 years, health care providers worldwide have relied on GE Medical Systems for high quality medical technology and productivity solutions. For more information, visit the GE Medical Systems Web site at www.gemedical.com
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