CHICAGO- NOVEMBER 26, 2007 - High-Definition (HD) technology is coming into every facet of our lives. It's used in the electronics in our homes, the radios in our cars and may be coming soon to the health care providers.

At RSNA, GE showcased its recent technical and clinical advances from a portfolio of groundbreaking CT technologies that the company intends to incorporate into its next generation of computed tomography (CT) scanners. GE announced these advances under the umbrella of "HDCT technologies" - given their potential to revolutionize what clinicians may see with HDCT images, similar to the quantum leap in image clarity that HDTV provides.

"HDCT technologies represent a dramatic departure from recent CT industry trends, but one that - at its core - is aligned with the real diagnostic goals that clinicians are demanding for their patients," said Gene Saragnese, vice president of GE's CT business. "We're re-inventing CT to help them clearly see more detail. We're working with new functional and time-based CT information and we're investing to provide unprecedented diagnostic clarity using considerably less radiation dose."
Believing that simply adding more slices or x-ray sources does nothing to improve image clarity, GE engineers and scientists are working on completely revamping the entire CT imaging chain - from the x-ray tube through the detector and data acquisition system--even rewriting the way images are reconstructed for the first time since CT was invented.

As a new foundation, GE materials scientists are reformulating new CT detector material for the first time in 20 years. This new scintillator material is 98% garnet and 2% rare earths -- the rare earths result in the yellowish coloration, instead of the normal purple of garnet.

It's based on the brilliant garnet gemstone because of its unique optical properties. When modified to enhance its x-ray-scintillating behavior, the "GE Gemstone" CT detector is being designed to provide significant improvements to x-ray conversion speed and other properties required to support step-function improvements in spatial resolution.

In May, Dr. Dennis Foley, Director of Imaging at Milwaukee's Froedtert Lutheran Medical Center and the Medical College of Wisconsin, became the first to utilize a number of HDCT technologies incorporated in a modified LightSpeed VCT system.
"I was impressed by the clarity of the patient images I was able to achieve and am excited by the potential for reducing the radiation burden to the patient," said Dr. Foley. "This combination could represent a fundamental new direction for CT, when compared to conventional technologies."

The "GE Gemstone" CT technology is still under development and the company could not give an estimated time when it would be ready for market.

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