Mumbai, September 21, 2005 - From business at the speed of thought, it's now diagnosis at the speed of light! As the world prepares for World Heart Day on September 25, the first LightSpeed Volume CT system in India is now at Jaslok Hospital in Mumbai.
A CT scanner that can non-invasively capture the image of any organ in the human body in just a second, perform a whole body trauma scan in less than 10 seconds and capture images of the heart and coronary arteries in fewer than 5 heartbeats (4-6 seconds) - something no other CT system in the world can offer - that's the GE LightSpeed VCT.
A revolutionary new CT scanner that has the potential to transform the way doctors are able to diagnose and treat heart disease and other life-threatening illnesses, the GE LightSpeed VCT is a Volume Computed Tomography (VCT) scanner built on next-generation technology that is breaking barriers in speed of diagnosis and accuracy, enabling doctors to diagnose and treat patients in the shortest time possible.
"I would like to congratulate Jaslok Hospital for becoming the first hospital in South Asia to install the GE LightSpeed VCT. We are incredibly proud that top medical institutions from around the world continue to choose the LightSpeed VCT for its speed and resolution", said Stephen R. Bolze, President & CEO of GE Healthcare Technologies, International.
Mr. Bolze added, "The variety of clinical settings, as well as the volume of healthcare practitioners now using the LightSpeed VCT is an amazing affirmation of the speed and resolution of GE's 64-detector Volume CT scanner. Physicians tell us they are excited about the clinical advantages of the LightSpeed VCT and the way they can use this new technology to aid in their viewing and diagnosis of diseases".
Dr Srinivas B. Desai, Director - Department of Imaging and Interventional Radiology, Jaslok Hospital said, "This is clearly the beginning of a new imaging era. This system provides unprecedented image quality almost instantaneously, which will provide significant impact in cardiovascular medicine and trauma as well as significantly improve imaging in neurology, oncology and other fields. With this breakthrough scanner, doctors at Jaslok will be able to diagnose a patient's illness much faster, enabling us to begin treatment more quickly in a crisis and save lives."
Dr Desai added, "It is amazing that an accurate 3-dimensional image of the coronary arteries and sites of focal disease can be obtained from a beating heart. The LightSpeed VCT system does this using rapid high-resolution imaging gated to the patient's heart cycle. The medical community is quickly coming to understand the significant benefits and medical implications of the LightSpeed VCT. Take the case of a patient who has undergone five bypass graft operations and is suffering from chest pain and phlebitis. Doctors needed to quickly understand whether the pain was coming from his heart or his lungs. Thanks to a single LightSpeed VCT scan, it will now be possible to quickly and accurately prove that the bypasses were operating correctly, but the patient suffered from pulmonary embolism or vice versa."
Mr. V. Raja, President & CEO, GE Healthcare Technologies, South Asia said, "The GE LightSpeed VCT is a breakthrough in Cardiac Imaging. It offers physicians sharper, clearer body images in just a few seconds enabling doctors to diagnose a patient's condition quickly and treat patients in the shortest time possible. This new technology is breaking barriers in the speed of diagnosis and accuracy. And it is all done non-invasively. This game changing technology will make the LightSpeed VCT the quintessential emergency room scanner. The LightSpeed VCT is testimony to GE's commitment to develop and deliver innovative, life-saving technologies that benefit both doctors and patients."
The unmatched advantages of LightSpeed VCT - Early Health
The LightSpeed VCT is one more example of GE's commitment to innovation and technology for early disease detection supporting physicians in improved diagnosis and treatment."
1 second for any organ, 10 seconds for the whole body, 4-6 seconds for a Heart scan.
In a single rotation, the LightSpeed VCT creates 64-submillimetre images, totalling 40 millimetres of anatomical coverage, which are then combined to form a three-dimensional view of the patient's anatomy for the physician to analyse.
Due to its astonishing coverage speed, the LightSpeed VCT has the capability to attain 43 millisecond temporal resolution, which means doctors can effectively freeze the motion of the heart, helping them to provide accurate diagnosis and, in turn, treatment of heart disease and other life-threatening illnesses.
Heart motion has historically made CT cardiovascular scans challenging and prone to motion artefacts.
The LightSpeed VCT with its 0.35 second rotation and 40 millimetre coverage allows for true volumetric scanning of the heart in only five beats. Due to its speed, the LightSpeed VCT is enabling physicians to secure extremely high-quality images of coronary arteries at submillimetre resolution in only five beats of the heart. This enables a fast and less invasive diagnostic evaluation of arterial stenosis.
For several million patients who are referred to the Emergency Department with chest pain each year, only a fraction are actually having a heart attack. Discerning the cause of chest pain can be a lengthy, expensive process.
When a patient comes in to the emergency room with acute chest pain, the major concern of any physician is to rule out (or in) 3 critical causes, which can result in the death of the patient. (1) Coronary Artery Disease (2) Pulmonary Embolism and (3) Aortic dissection. Volume CT has the capability to help the physician rule out all the 3 critical causes in one single rotation lasting 10 seconds, non-invasively. Physicians can decide the line of treatment in a matter of minutes to save the life of a patient. .
Once a stroke occurs, it is commonly believed that treatment must be delivered within an hour or less to ensure the best outcome for the patient. Current diagnostic imaging procedures are complex. LightSpeed VCT offers the speed and resolution required for rapid examination of blood vessels in the brain (perfusion studies), enabling doctors to make a quick diagnosis of stroke and extent of damage, and may help make this complex procedure easier and more routine.
Recognitions for LightSpeed VCT
LightSpeed VCT is considered a GE "Imagination Breakthrough" product - a major new invention with significant clinical and productivity value for clinicians and patients. LightSpeed VCT leverages GE's research and development investment in the areas of CT scanning in a new, patented design. LightSpeed Volume CT was introduced in June 2004 and over 100 installations have been completed all over the world.
GE Healthcare was awarded the Gold Connecticut Quality Improvement Award (CQIA) for GE's next-generation Volume Computed Tomography (VCT) system, the LightSpeed VCT. CQIA recognized the LightSpeed VCT for providing coverage, speed, power and resolution, which enables physicians to capture images of the heart and coronary arteries in as few as five heart beats - something no other CT system can offer. "The Connecticut Quality Improvement Award Partnership is proud to honor GE Healthcare for its creative ingenuity and entrepreneurial cutting edge technology. By using creative ingenuity, GE Healthcare is focused on helping humanity and improving our lives with novel and superior products and services."
Because of the LightSpeed VCT's advances in both high resolution and speed, the scanner was selected by Popular Science Magazine as "The Best of What's New in Technology for 2004". The magazine noted that LightSpeed VCT offers 75 percent faster scanning than existing CTs.
LightSpeed VCT was also awarded the 'Product of the Year" award by AuntMinnie.com in 2004.
About GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies that are shaping a new age of patient care. GE Healthcare's expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring and life support systems, disease research, drug discovery, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies is helping physicians detect disease earlier and to tailor personalized treatments for patients. GE Healthcare offers a broad range of products and services that are improving productivity in healthcare and enhancing patient care by enabling healthcare providers to better diagnose and treat cancer, heart disease, neurological diseases, and other conditions. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a $15 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 43,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at www.gehealthcare.com
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