This report originally appeared in the January 2011 issue of DOTmed Business News

Despite their size, X-ray tubes are among the most expensive consumable in a hospital. With a tough economy, hospitals are asking for more to fit into less when it comes to this crucial piece of the imaging puzzle.

“The new form factor of flat panel imagers is driving new equipment design and its adding capability,” says Stephen Kimmel, vice president sales and marketing for Varian Medical System’s X-ray products operation. “To address that capability, smaller, lighter and more powerful products are needed.”
Over the past five years or so, the diagnostic imaging industry has been seeing revolutionary changes, as digital imaging has become more prominent for radiology and fluoroscopy systems.

The transition from analog imaging to digital imaging is gaining speed and advancements in that technology are coming fast, according to David Hurlock, international marketing manager for Varian. The migration to digital radiography from analog radiography and CR is happening at a rapid pace because facilities can justify greater capital expense for increased throughput.

With digital flat panels, facilities are able to perform more procedures in a given period of time. But that puts a greater demand on the X-ray tube and the generator.

“On a digital system the increased throughput and fast image acquisition means the duty cycle, (time between shots) is dramatically shorter,” Hurlock says. “We hear from our customers that X-ray tubes that lasted three to five years on a film or CR system are lasting one to two years on a similar digital system.”

Manufacturers are responding to increased demands by the imaging market and in response are developing technically advanced X-ray tube and panel solutions that are cost-effective and offer the benefit of increased patient throughput.

Varian’s newest mammography tube, the M-1500 was created with that higher-throughput and space-saving design in mind – especially for applications like CT mammography.

“A lot of companies interested in developing mammography CT and the M1500 is really developed specifically for volumetric imaging in the mammography space,” Kimmel says.

Hurlock adds that the company’s G-692 is a 600 kHU metal center section tube that fits in its industry standard B-130H housing.

“It’s a great new tube for many digital imaging applications that use a 4” glass tube now, but where longer tube life will be an advantage,” he says. “We’ve added a new compatible replacement CT tube to our line, for the MX-8000 scanners. And we’re always working on new, innovative products, and ways to support them.”

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