New CT scanner by GE Healthcare advances imaging technology

MILWAUKEE — GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Company, recently announced the first patient scans using GE’s new CT scanner, LightSpeed VCT, at Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee.

The LightSpeed VCT is able to non-invasively capture any organ in one second, scan the whole body in less than 10 seconds and capture images of the heart and coronaries in fewer than five heartbeats.

In a single rotation, the system creates 64 thin images, totaling 40 millimeters of anatomical coverage. These images are combined to form a three-dimensional view of the patient’s anatomy for the physician to analyze.

“This is clearly the beginning of a new imaging era,” said W. Dennis Foley, chief of digital imaging at Froedtert Hospital and professor of radiology at the Medical College of Wisconsin. “This system provides unprecedented image quality almost instantaneously, which should provide significant impact in cardiovascular medicine and trauma. Though its impact may be most significant in trauma and cardiovascular medicine, the LightSpeed VCT also should improve imaging in neurology, oncology and other fields.”

Some features of the LightSpeed VCT include: The ability to secure extremely high-quality images of coronaries at submillimeter resolution in only five beats of the heart. This capability will potentially make diagnostic evaluation of arterial stenosis faster and less invasive than catheter angiography.

Emergency room patients exhibiting acute chest pain may be able to be diagnostically scanned for evidence of heart attack, pulmonary embolism or aortic dissection in one scan.

LightSpeed VCT is also designed to enable doctors to make a quick diagnosis of stroke and assess the extent of damage by rapidly examining blood vessels in the brain (perfusion studies).

The LightSpeed VCT is the sixth new LightSpeed CT product developed by GE Healthcare to be installed for clinical use first at Froedtert Hospital. Froedtert Hospital is a 424-bed academic medical center staffed by faculty of the Medical College of Wisconsin.