GE Healthcare's CT Scanner advances coronary imaging
LightSpeed VCT helps physicians improve the success rate of coronary CT imaging
By WTN News • 11/14/05 DALLAS - GE Healthcare has data from a clinical case study confirming that the LightSpeed VCT, GE's volume computed tomography (CT) scanner, is capable of capturing images of the human heart in as few as five beats. The announcement was made at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association in Dallas.
The clinical case study data, collected by Dr. Jean-Louis Sablayrolles, head of CT Cardiac Imaging Radiology at Centre Cardiologique de Nord in Saint-Denis, France, shows the LightSpeed VCT's ability to scan the heart in five heart beats is a critical tool to help physicians improve the success rate of coronary CT imaging when compared with scan durations of 10 seconds or longer.
GE also announced today that the company is partnering with more than 20 clinical collaborators to focus on large, in-depth research studies to further examine the benefits of cardiac CT. These academic institutions include the Medical College of Wisconsin, North Shore University Hospital, Cardiology Associates of Alabama, University of California Los Angeles Harbor, Baylor University Hospital and Cornell University Hospital.
Over the course of a year, patients participating in these studies will have both an angiogram and a LightSpeed VCT scan so that physicians can compare the images. The results of the study will guide clinicians in the use of the LightSpeed VCT as a stand-alone diagnostic tool and may also help in the diagnostic evaluation of emergency patients.
Additionally, a controlled clinical study underway at Children's Hospital and Health System in San Diego to assess the clinical performance of the LightSpeed VCT for infants with heart defects. The study will compare the accuracy of the LightSpeed VCT with the more invasive cardiac catheterization techniques on children born with congenital defects of the heart and major vessels.
