GE Healthcare receives FDA clearance for Optima CT660 system

GE HealthcareAug 9 2011

GE Healthcare today announced FDA clearance of Optima CT660 - a powerful and compact Computed Tomography (CT) system offering improvements from its predecessors in diagnostic capabilities at low dose levels, and designed for sustainability and ease-of-use. Powered by GE's advanced CT technologies and applications, this intelligent platform is scalable from 32 to 128 slices through purchasable options and enables fast, high performance imaging for patients in a variety of clinical settings, including cardiac, neurological, emergency room and routine CT.

"This next-generation CT system delivers on one of healthcare's key challenges - generating precise clinical images and providing dose optimizing capabilities," said Steve Gray, Vice President and General Manager of CT & Advantage Workstation for GE Healthcare. "Boosted by GE's advanced low dose imaging technology, Optima CT660's purposeful design and workflow enhancements also provide flexibility to facilities that may be constrained by space or resources - which aids healthcare professionals seeking to do more with less and best serve their patients' needs."

Already in use at hundreds of sites across Europe, Latin America and Asia, GE's Optima CT660 is the first CT system that is both ecomagination and healthymagination-certified, two of GE's global initiatives aimed at transforming healthcare delivery through innovation, partnerships and sustainability.

Based on customer demand and designed with GE's HD technologies, the Optima CT660 takes the known and trusted capabilities of the LightSpeed VCT to a whole new level. The Optima CT660 helps healthcare professionals deliver confident, personalized patient care - combining GE's proven dose-optimizing ASiR (Adaptive Statistical Iterative Reconstruction) technology, improved workflow features, and advanced applications for cardiovascular, oncology, neurology, CT angiography and other fields.

• In cardiovascular settings, Optima CT660 is designed to scan the heart efficiently with accurate and reliable clinical results. Combining ASiR and Snapshot Pulse with Adaptive Gating technology, patient dose may be reduced compared to traditional helical scan techniques. GE's CT Advantage Workstation (AW) cardiovascular system may also help accelerate workflow with enhanced post-processing automation and reliability.
• The Optima CT660 with AW's suite of oncology applications helps physicians assess lesions at potentially lower dose, while also streamlining overall workflow for lesion detection, analysis and follow-up.
• For CT angiography, Optima CT660's speed and image clarity may reduce the trade-off between coverage and high resolution.

Small Footprint, Big Benefits

Optima CT660's compact footprint combined with a modular design opens the door to advanced, low dose imaging for many customers constrained by space.

An ecomagination-certified product, GE's Optima CT660 is also among the world's most energy efficient Volume CT systems, using about 60 percent less energy than previous-generation scanners. Additionally, its lighter weight reduces transportation costs while its environmental design addresses refurbishment and end-of-life recycling.

With ergonomic enhancements and new, convenient design features like automatic table positioning and GE Healthcare's first color 12-inch integrated gantry display monitor, the user-friendly Optima CT660 offers outstanding imaging performance, customized exam previews and streamlined workflows for reliable and repeatable exams. These improvements can potentially improve patient throughput and workflow efficiency.

Lower Dose by Design

Traditionally, lowering CT dose increases noise creating an undesirable trade-off between clear images, required in today's clinical environment, and reduced x-ray dose. To overcome this conventional CT challenge and achieve As Low As Reasonably Achievable (ALARA) dose levels, Optima CT660 utilizes GE's industry breakthrough reconstruction technology called ASiR. ASiR's design may allow for reduced mA in the acquisition of diagnostic images, thereby reducing the required x-ray dose.

Additionally, and in line with GE's continuing commitment to dose-reduction and the Medical Imaging and Technology Alliance's "Dose Check" initiative, GE's Optima CT660 features advanced tools that help clinical users manage dose. Standard on the Optima CT660, "Dose Check" technology notifies and alerts CT users prior to scanning if the estimated dose is above their institution's set values, requires explicit user authority checks when estimated dose exceeds the alert value, enables specifically-defined pediatric and adult alert values, and provides for audit logging, review, and protocol change control capabilities.