Exams completed quickly boast improved image quality, increased patient comfort and safety while decreasing patient radiation dose!
Ortonville Area Health Services, in its quest to stay abreast with the latest in technology, is pleased to announce that it has installed the Aquilion™ 32 from Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc. The new scanner is an advanced computed tomography (CT) system that can quickly scan any region of the body for injury, internal bleeding, masses and deliver precise images of bones and organs.In addition to fast CT scans, OAHS expects to significantly increase its exam capacity – which means more patients can receive the treatment they need faster and be referred to surgery or discharged from the hospital. In an emergency room setting, when every second counts, the Aquilion 32 scanner will allow physicians to quickly identify injuries to the internal organs and make a confident diagnosis.
"Big Stone Lake Area residents have immediate access to the best CT technology available today," said April Staehling, Director of Radiology. “The next closest provider to offer a unit at or above the number of slices is over an hour away. For trauma patients like auto accident victims, this may prove to be lifesaving technology. For patients with blood clots, infections, and diseases like cancer, early diagnosis with the Aquilion 32 may result in FASTER treatment and IMPROVED outcomes.”
Another exciting aspect to the Aquilion 32 is lowering the patient’s radiation dosage. The scanner reduces patient helical scans by up 40%, automatically modifying tube current based on the patient anatomy being scanned.
Staehling went on to comment, “This is a huge improvement over older scanners, especially in pediatric patients. On an average patient, we are utilizing from 60-140 mAs instead of 200-300 mAs. That is a significant statistic for anyone concerned about their radiation dose.”
Multi-detector CT has dramatically improved clinicians' ability to accurately diagnose disease at an early stage. It is a powerful diagnostic tool that uses rotating X-rays to penetrate body tissues, generating multiple slice images, which can detect more than traditional radiography.
The Aquilion 32 is designed to offer physicians greater diagnostic capabilities by helping patients avoid more invasive medical procedures. The system delivers clinical images with multi-slice imaging technology that captures up to 32 anatomical slices in a single rotation. As a result, Toshiba’s multi-slice technology captures precise images of the body’s rapidly moving organs like the heart and lungs, which appear blurry when scanned by a traditional CT. Multi-slice imaging also is especially useful for examining patients who are unable to hold their breath, like trauma victims, acutely ill patients and young children.