CHICAGO, May 3, 2011 - Reducing radiation dose while maintaining high image quality is a priority for medical imaging manufacturers and healthcare facilities. Addressing the need of improving clinician confidence and diagnostic accuracy while lowering dose in cardiovascular CT, Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc. will showcase its AquilionTM ONE 320-detector row technology for cardiovascular CT as well as its dose reduction features at the American Roentgen Ray Society (ARRS) annual meeting, held in Chicago, May 1-6, 2011 (Booth 406).

Unlike any other CT system available, the Aquilion ONE covers up to 16 cm of anatomy using 320 ultra-high resolution 0.5 mm detector elements and can image the entire heart in less than a single heartbeat. The Aquilion ONE not only images patients quickly and accurately but also features numerous technologies that limit radiation dose while allowing healthcare providers to achieve their medical imaging objectives. One of these technologies is Adaptive Iterative Dose Reduction (AIDR) software that iterates noise out of the image to increase image quality and lower radiation dose.

To address advancements in cardiovascular CT, Toshiba will be sponsoring the presentation "Advances in 320 Row Cardiovascular CT" by Frank John Rybicki, M.D., Ph.D; Director, Applied Imaging Science Laboratory; Director, Cardiac CT and Vascular CT / MRI, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Department of Radiology; and Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Rybicki will also be addressing dose reduction techniques. For more information about the presentation, visit www.medical.toshiba.com.
Toshiba's Dose Check Software

Now standard on all new Aquilion ONE CT systems, Toshiba's NEMA XR 25 Dose Check Software includes Dose Alert and Dose Notification, addressing the two main components of MITA's CT Dose Check Initiative, as well as DICOM IHE SR software to allow patient dose tracking. Details of these features include:

·Dose Alert - The Dose Alert feature alerts the user if the selected scan settings yield a predicted dose that exceeds an upper threshold dose value. The default settings require that the user edit scan parameters or input their username to confirm the selected scan settings before continuing with the programmed scan.

·Dose Notification - The Dose Notification feature allows the user to set a nominal dose notification value for each part of a protocol being run. The Dose Notification feature will notify a user if the predicted dose value exceeds the nominal dose notification value.

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