At this year's American College of Cardiology (ACC) annual meeting, Toshiba will be showcasing its full line of CT products from multi-detector to dynamic volume systems. The Aquilion® product line has been instrumental in worldwide, multi-center clinical trials to validate the effectiveness of CT in improving the lives of patients. Recently, results were announced for the CorE 64 multicenter trial, and Toshiba launched support of a new trial - CORE 320 - to validate the Aquilion ONE. In addition to both of these, Toshiba will also have information about the faCTor64 trial being conducted at Intermountain Healthcare in Utah.

In addition, Toshiba will demonstrate automated workflow enhancements and clinical applications for the Aquilion CT line -SURECardio Prospective and Variable Helical Pitch (vHP) - designed to manage and reduce patient radiation dose, provide faster diagnosis and maximize patient comfort.

SURECardio Prospective
Toshiba's SURECardio Prospective helps reduce patient radiation dose by up to 80 percent during coronary CTA exams by using a helical acquisition technique to provide one continuous image instead of multiple images produced by the current step-and-shoot technique. The step-and-shoot technique can produce inconclusive images, particularly for patients with irregular heartbeats, leading to increased exam times and radiation dose for the patient. SURECardio Prospective will automatically adjust to patients with irregular heartbeats, providing quicker, more conclusive exam results.

SURECardio Prospective automatically selects scan parameters and reconstruction based on the patient's heart rate. It also speeds exam time and eliminates the need for additional contrast used with the step-and-shoot method.

Variable Helical Pitch
Variable Helical Pitch (vHP) increases workflow and efficiency by enabling physicians to complete an exam of more than one anatomical region consecutively - i.e. without stopping to alter the helical pitch of the exam. This gives physicians the flexibility needed for cardiovascular imaging. For example, patients with suspected chest pain can now undergo one CT exam that provides physicians information to assist in the diagnosis of both heart disease and aortic aneurysms.

Toshiba is the first to clinically introduce this type of technique.

Magnetic Resonance
Toshiba to Demonstrate Virtual Explorer Workstation
3D MR Workstation Offers Unmatched Cardiac Evaluation Capabilities

At this year's American College of Cardiology meeting, Toshiba MR will demonstrate the Virtual Explorer workstation.

Available today, the Virtual Explorer Workstation is a complete 3D, post-processing tool for MR analysis and image display. The physician-friendly design offers a full range of features that will enhance MR imaging capability and functionality. The workstation comes with both the hardware and software necessary for a complete post-processing package. Key software features include: MPR/MIP, 3D imaging, Brain Perfusion, Fusion, Cardiac Analysis, (EF), Coronary Assessment, Myocardial Perfusion, Flow Analysis, Delayed Enhancement and Double Oblique.

X-ray/Vascular

Toshiba Introduces the VF-i SP with Mid-sized Flat Panel Detector and Type S Processor

At this year's American College of Cardiology meeting, Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc. will introduce a new addition to its Cardiovascular InfinixTM-i system offering - the Infinix VF-i SP with Type S Processor. This new system will incorporate all of the technology that the Infinix line is known for, including complete head-to-toe and fingertip-to-fingertip coverage, and comprehensive system configuration. Now, two major features have been added to the system, including:

-A new digital processor that will expand on Toshiba's proprietary Advance Image Processing (AIP) technology. This exclusive Toshiba technology will enhance overall resolution, improve visualization over dark anatomical areas and virtually eliminate image lag. These enhancements are especially important during fluoroscopic imaging while cardiologists are performing diagnostic and interventional procedures.

-A new 12''x12'' flat panel detector (FPD) that covers more than twice the anatomical surface area of a traditional cardiac FPD. This mid-size panel allows cardiologists to increase their working field-of-view and more easily perform procedures outside the heart while minimally impacting the angulations, which are compromised by larger panels. This is an important feature for today's cath labs because not only can it perform cardiovascular procedures, but also it increases system utilization.

Ultrasound

Toshiba Introduces Upgrades to the Aplio Artida to Enhance Imaging Capabilities for the Cardiac Market

Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc. will showcase the company's newest additions to the AplioTM Artida ultrasound system at this year's American College of Cardiology annual meeting. Toshiba also will be expanding the clinical utility of Artida with the introduction of a pediatric package and two new probes.

With 3D Wall Motion Tracking, physicians for the first time will be able to assess live 3D volume images in one cardiac cycle. The ability to accomplish this in one cardiac cycle will eliminate stitching artifacts, and more importantly allow physicians to obtain high quality images in patients with arrhythmias.

2D Wall Motion Tracking of the transmural myocardium will enable physicians to more accurately diagnose heart disease by allowing them to separate out parts of the heart for viewing. For example, with this software, physicians will be able to look at just the endocardium or epicardium, in addition to providing views of the entire muscle. This is important because different parts of the muscle move at different speeds. Now physicians will be able to evaluate each part separately rather than rely on an average.

Using Artida's real-time, multi-planar reformatting capabilities, physicians can assess global and regional LV function, including volumetric LV ejection fraction. Arbitrary views of the heart, not available in 2D imaging, are also obtained to help with surgical planning. The 2D/3D wall motion tracking features from Toshiba allow the user to obtain angle-independent, global and regional information about myocardial contraction. It is hoped these features will enable acquisition of additional data that could be of value in echo-guided cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) and in stress echocardiography.