Siemens Healthineers has announced that University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital in Iowa City is the first facility in the United States to install the company’s SOMATOM Drive CT system. This new high-performance scanner joins the SOMATOM Force and SOMATOM Definition Flash in the dual source segment of the company’s CT portfolio. The SOMATOM Drive was designed to drive precision in diagnostic imaging across a wide range of clinical disciplines – including pediatrics, emergency medicine, cardiology, and oncology – in addition to delivering a new level of quality in patient care, with the potential to help save time during patient preparation and follow-up care.
“Siemens Healthineers is pleased to provide the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital with the SOMATOM Drive, which can help their clinicians deliver more precise pediatric imaging and potentially further reduce pediatric dose through the scanner’s kV-tailoring capabilities and its CARE Screen with Tin Filter,” says Douglas Ryan, Vice President of Computed Tomography at Siemens Healthineers North America.
The new Straton MX Sigma X-ray tube voltages of the SOMATOM Drive are adjustable in 10 kV increments ranging from 70 kV to 140 kV, allowing clinicians to tailor the voltage and, therefore, the dose to each patient. Imaging at a lower kV level reduces radiation exposure for patients. The CARE Screen with Tin Filters on both of the system’s X-ray tubes filter out the parts of the X-ray beam that are rarely useful for imaging, enabling clinicians to lower the dose while maintaining image quality.
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The new Straton MX Sigma X-ray tubes and Sigma generators of the SOMATOM Drive also permit more targeted beam focusing and enable examinations using high energy levels at low voltages. These higher energy levels, combined with lower voltages, may permit clinicians to use less contrast, which can burden pediatric patients and those with serious illnesses or compromised kidney function.
Additionally, the extremely fast scanning speed of the SOMATOM Drive not only supports sedation-free pediatric CT examinations, but it also keeps the patient’s heart and lung movement from compromising diagnostic imaging quality. And since clinicians can perform a cardiac scan within one heartbeat using the SOMATOM Drive, beta-blockers may not be necessary to slow the heartbeat of some patients.
