DOTmed News met up with Agfa at ECR 2010 in Vienna, Austria to look at two new mammography-focused applications: a brand-new CR plate reader for mammography that offers the potential to lower radiation dose, and a new breast imaging workstation with a keypad co-developed by specialists at Massachusetts General Hospital.

New CR plate reader

Making its debut at ECR was the DX-M, a CR plate reader for mammography and general radiography that handles both traditional phosphor powder plate and needle-based plate detectors.

(Click to watch the video below to learn more about the DX-M.)

Get the Flash Player to see this video.

"Needle-based detectors have superior image quality," explains Christine Uytterhoeven, digital radiography product manager at Agfa. She says by using the newer needle-based detection plates, radiologists are sometimes able to cut the radiation dose in half when compared with the phosphor powder plates.

This dose-cutting is critical for neonatal applications, Uytterhoeven argues, "because there it is important to give the patient as [little] dose as possible."

The DX-M buffer holds four cassettes at once, and creates an image preview after just 13 seconds. "You can just drop the cassettes in it, and just go and leave the cassettes in the system," she explains.

The DX-M should be available in Europe by the middle of this year.

New breast imaging workstation

Agfa also debuted its latest breast imaging workstation, the IMPAX for Breast Imaging 6.5, which is designed for reviewing mammography, breast MRI and breast ultrasound. One of the main upgrades is the so-called 1:1 Navigator, which allows radiologists to fit mammography images to the screen with practically one click.

(Watch the video below to see the IMPAX 6.5 in action.)

Get the Flash Player to see this video.

"Breasts are zoomed to the maximum for images displayed," Wim Van Riet, strategic technology manager for Agfa, tells DOTmed News. The IMPAX will also feature a new keypad for controlling the workstation, designed with the help of Massachusetts General Hospital, "one of the key hospitals for breast imaging," according to Riet. The workstation is due the fourth quarter of this year, but the keypad will be released in just a few weeks.

Visually, one of the most striking aspects of the station is that it now boasts Barco's 30-inch 10 megapixel Coronis Fusion monitor. The monitor lacks a central bezel, making it easier for radiologists to compare breast images side by side.

"It will replace in the future the two 5 megapixel screens," says Riet, although he says there will still be an option to choose the two smaller monitors.