The Main Event
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CT takes a slice of the action
Wednesday morning’s imaging symposium is entitled “Advances in CT hardware and algorithms”. If that sounds somewhat dry, the abstracts suggest otherwise.
The programme kicks off with a talk from Toshiba Medical Systems extolling the promise of 256-slice CT. Whereas conventional multislice CT scanners can only cover a few centimetres of the body with each rotation, 256-slice CT can capture up to 13 cm at once. This means it can potentially provide artefact-free 3D images of entire organs. Toshiba researchers, for their part, reckon this capability will revolutionize several areas of diagnostic imaging.
That’s a big claim, but just how much of this is marketing hype remains to be seen? The last talk in the session might help to put things in perspective, when radiology professor Michael Vannier (University of Chicago, IL) talks about the current status and future prospects of CT imaging. He’ll argue that the larger-area detectors and higher frame acquisition rates associated with 64 to 256-slice CT scanners partly address the problems caused by organ motion, but don’t provide a complete solution.
The other talks in this session cover the recent emergence of dedicated extremity scanners and the advantages and limitations of such devices. There’s also a look at advances in CT imaging algorithms. If you’re going along to this session on Wednesday, why not give us your take on things via the easy-to-use commenting tool at the end of this post.
Advances in CT hardware and algorithms symposium line-up:
• The promise of 256 Slice CT T Rifu and R Mather.
• Advances in CT: Dedicated extremity scanners E Bailey.
• CT algorithm development and applications X Pan.
• Clinical X-ray computed tomography in 2007: Status and future M Vannier.
