New 256-slice Scanner Promises Patient, Physician Benefits       

A new scanner that offers hope for stroke victims and heart patients has come to Georgia. And thanks to Quantum Radiology, it's only at WellStar Kennestone hospital.

We're the only site in the Southeast selected to receive the 256 Phillips CT scanner," says Dr. Jaydip Datta, M.D., a physician at Quantum Radiology, which partnered with Phillips to bring the Brilliance iCT scanner to WellStar's Kennestone Hospital in July 2008.

Until now, this revolutionary technology was exclusively available at only nine major academic institutions around the world. Recognized as medical imaging and clinical education leaders, Quantum Radiology and WellStar Heath Systems were selected to receive the tenth scanner, the very first as a private practice.

"Phillips felt that there was value in placing one in our hands so that we can gain experience and provide them with valuable feedback," says Dr. Jay Cinnamon, M.D. "So it's a huge compliment to us that they selected us as one of the 10 sites across the world."

CAT scan technology has evolved dramatically since the early 1970's, when it was first widely used. Since the first multi-slice CT scanner was introduced about 10 years ago, the technology has been progressing by leaps and bounds - first the four-slice scanner, then 16-, 64- and now the new 256-slice scanner.

"Now we're doing some of the things we were doing in the multi-slice era of the late 1990s, but much better," Dr. Cinnamon says. "At the same time, this scanner will open up the opportunity to do new things that we couldn't do before."

Scanner Brings Huge Benefits

The main difference between the 256-slice scanner and its predecessors is that the device uses far more rotary detectors, therefore covering a larger area of the body in a shorter time interval.

Phillip's 256-slice scanner can conduct a full-body scan as well as rotate around it in less than a minute, sending out 256 pulses every one-third of a second. It is so powerful that it can capture an unblurred image of an entire heart in less than two heartbeats.

The scanner will provide greater dimension and depth across a range of clinical areas, including whole brain perfusion, cardiac CT with Step & Shoot technology, and head and neck angiography,

The technology has vast implications for the medical field, especially for heart disease and stroke detection.

"The heart is a moving muscle, so one of the big advantages of this ultra-high speed technology is that you can essentially freeze cardiac motion," says Dr. Cinnamon. "By freezing the cardiac motion, the coronary arteries aren't moving with the beating heart and you get a very clear look at whether the cardiac arteries are open or if they're clogged with atherosclerotic plaque."

The 256-slice scanner also allows physicians to look at the heart from any perspective, potentially allowing an earlier detection of heart problems.

"More than 50% of people who have heart attacks, sudden cardiac deaths or unstable angina have previously been asymptomatic," says Dr. Datta. "Now, we'll be able to detect disease in the coronary arteries before it becomes manifest. We would be able to potentially save more lives by having earlier access to treatment and earlier diagnosis.Ó

A Better Look at the Brain

The Phillips 256-slice scanner will also allow physicians to detect whether a patient is having a stroke much faster than with previous models. And when it comes to the brain and a potential stroke victim, time is of the utmost importance.

"The brain is very high real estate," explains Dr. Cinnamon. "A very small area of the brain that is affected may lead to a very significant clinical problem."

Previous scanners could only visualize a portion of the brain, so physicians could only focus on the most important brain function regions.

"If you're only limiting your stroke study to a small area of the brain, the area of the brain that is affected may very well elude detection on an earlier version of the multi-slice technology," Dr. Cinnamon says. "Now with the 256, it's conceivable that we'll be able to visualize the entire brain as a patient is having a stroke, and can pinpoint exactly in the brain where the problem is located."

The ability to locate the part of the brain affected by a stroke sooner means quicker action and less damage resulting from the stroke.

"With acute stroke imaging of the brain, we can image the brain in real time to identify blood flow to the brain, which areas are getting normal blood flow, and which areas have abnormally low blood flow, such as in a stroke situation," Dr. Cinnamon says. "This is going to open up a new avenue to evaluate stroke patients pretty much as soon as they come into the emergency room."

Patient Benefits

While the Phillips 256-slice scanner has the potential to change the way physicians look at the heart and brain, patients will experience several benefits as well.

Perhaps the biggest patient benefit is that the 256-slice scanner reduces the amount of radiation absorbed into the body. Because the scanner can conduct a full-body scan in less than a minute - the gantry rotates four times in a single second, which is 22 percent faster than current systems - reducing radiation exposure by 80 percent less than conventional methods.

"This scanner has several innovative ways of reducing the x-ray dose to a patient," Dr. Cinnamon says. "That's what, in my opinion, makes this machine stand out against similar machines being introduced by other companies."

While the time it takes for a patient to go through the machine will not change significantly, what will change is the amount of time the patient will be exposed to radiation.

"The previous scanners took about 10 seconds," notes Dr. Datta. "This would only take about a couple of seconds. It shortens the amount of radiation."

"It's not just about how much radiation the machine is exposing our patient to, it's also how efficiently the machine is using the radiation," adds Dr. Cinnamon. "If it's using the radiation very efficiently, then the x-ray tube doesn't have to emit that high of a dose."

Because it will take less time to scan the patient, the process will also require less x-ray dye injected into the patient. Higher doses of the x-ray dye increases patient risk, so they were previously limited as to the amount of scans per session. The patient would then have to return on a different day to finish the remaining scans. Now, a patient can have more than one body part scanned in a single session.

"Now it's possible that with one visit to the CAT scan department, we really can look at several body parts without putting the patient at risk for kidney problems or other cardiovascular problems that a large x-ray dye dose might pose," Dr. Cinnamon says.

Because of the quicker scan time, people with fast heart rates who previously could not undergo a CAT scan can now do so.

"If our patients will not need to use beta-blockers and heart-slowing medications to undergo this process, this may become a mainstay of cardiac imaging in cardiac risk stratification, especially for patients who are at medium risk of having heart disease," says Dr. Datta. "We're going to be able to keep radiation doses down, and we're going to be able to image patients with rhythm dysfunctions of the heart (arrhythmias) because it's going to be a shorter and easier examination."

"With this 256 scanner, essentially, we can scan many more patients and get much more highly diagnostic information from coronary CT angiography," says Dr. Cinnamon. "The hope is we can get better, more highly diagnostic examinations at a lower radiation exposure to the patient."

Ultimately, the Phillips 256-slice scanner will offer physicians an improved way to detect stroke and heart disease while also decreasing the amount of radiation exposure to patients. But the implications of the 256-slice scanner will only be truly understood once it is in use for a longer period of time.

"I just think this is a wonderful thing that's happened to Atlanta, and we are fortunate to be one of the select few in the world to have this wonderful technology available to us," says Dr. Datta.

"It's exciting to be at the cutting edge and to explore how to use this to provide patients with the best possible healthcare," adds Dr. Cinnamon. "This is going to be a very big deal for WellStar to offer physicians and patients access to this level of diagnostic capabilities. Technology that once required patients to travel great distances is now accessible in their own community right here at WellStar's Kennestone Hospital in Cobb County."

For more information about Quantum Radiology, visit www.quantumradiology.com.