CT platform with expanded range of clinical applications
The two new scanners in the Somatom go. platform – Somatom go.All and Somatom go.Top – now make the mobile workflow available for advanced clinical fields such as cardiology and CT-guided intervention. This mobile workflow operated via tablet enables the user to interact with the patient being closer to him/her. With a rotation time of 0.33 seconds and the Stellar detector technology, the 64-slice Somatom go.All can cover scan ranges of up to 100 millimeters in one second. The 128-slice Somatom go.Top can perform whole-body scans of up to 200 centimeters with a scan speed of up to 175 millimeters per second. Users can deploy the Somatom go. platform’s mobile workflow in advanced clinical fields such as emergency medicine, interventional radiology (steered by Guide&GO, the first tablet-based solution for CT-guided interventions), and even cardiology. The new X-ray tube allows users to adjust the tube voltage in steps of 10 kilovolts while keeping the tube current high – and thus to adapt the settings to each patient’s individual anatomy. Examinations performed at just 70 kilovolts with a current of up to 825 milliamps, for instance, can significantly reduce X-ray dose and the amount of contrast medium required. Somatom go.Top also offers TwinBeam Dual Energy imaging, which means users can examine the same body region at two different energy levels simultaneously. The technology splits the X-ray beam into two energy spectra before it reaches the patient. With a scan mode that is not different to a routine CT examination, TwinBeam Dual Energy can therefore acquire two image datasets that provide additional information about the tissue. This is particularly beneficial in soft tissue differentiation and for oncology. All scanners belonging to the Somatom go. platform (including the two new additions) are handled via a tablet that can be used to control all routine and advanced examinations. Radiology technologists can thus stay close to their patients during the entire scan preparation process, which makes the experience much more pleasant for the patients, especially if they are children. Further innovative hardware designs are introduced with the Somatom go. platform. After the integration of all computer hardware into the gantry, a new injector arm is now available. This ergonomic solution allows the user to swivel the tablet and the injector around the gantry, flexibly placing them wherever needed.
