GE adds to Excite MRI platform

Jul 14, 2003

GE Medical Systems has incorporated several new applications into its Excite MR platform. The new features, being shown this week at the annual International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) meeting in Toronto, include the Waukesha, WI-based vendor's Accelerator data management program for additional processing power and faster workflow.

GE has also debuted Propeller, a pulse-sequence technique. Based on fast spin echo, Propeller technology acquires data in radial blades that rotate, making it helpful for stroke cases, pediatric patients, or anyone who can't remain motionless during the exam, according to the vendor. GE said that Propeller produces a 25% to 75% improvement in contrast-to-noise ratio, and leads to reduced tissue-to-air image distortion.

Another new feature, VIBRANT (volume imaging for breast assessment), produces sagittal images of both breasts in the same amount of time used by traditional techniques to image a single breast, GE said. VIBRANT integrates a fat-suppression technology with GE's Asset parallel imaging approach.

TRICKS (time-resolved imaging of contrast kinetics) is GE's application for assessing blood clots and other vascular diseases in the lower extremities. A dynamic scan, TRICKS eliminates the temporal factor of the MRA exam, acquiring all data for an MR angiography procedure, GE said. The vendor is also rolling out new eight-channel surface coils, include neurovascular, torso-pelvic, cardiac, and CTL spine arrays.

GE said that it has installed Excite on more than 300 of its Signa 1.5-tesla MR scanners around the world since last year.

By AuntMinnie.com staff writers
July 15, 2003
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