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Aquilion ONE / INSIGHT Edition – Making A Difference
February 28th, 2024
Royal Bournemouth Hospital in the UK was the first in Europe to receive the new Aquilion ONE / INSIGHT Edition CT scanner. Dr. Russell Bull, MD, Consultant Radiologist and Lead CT at the Radiology Department of the Hospital explains how it has already brought about big changes.
The Royal Bournemouth Hospital is a general hospital in Bournemouth, Dorset, UK. It has approximately 600 inpatient beds and 123 day care beds. The hospital provides urgent and emergency care, medical care, surgery, critical care, end of life care, outpatient and diagnostic services. The Royal Bournemouth provides services for a population of around 550,000 local people – a number which rises during the summer months due to the attraction of the area as a destination for tourists. The hospital’s radiology department has collaborated with Canon Medical for many years. In addition to the new Aquilion ONE / INSIGHT Edition CT, the department has other Canon CT scanners including an Aquilion ONE / GENESIS Edition and an Aquilion Serve.
The Royal Bournemouth Hospital is a general hospital in Bournemouth, Dorset, UK. It has approximately 600 inpatient beds and 123 day care beds. The hospital provides urgent and emergency care, medical care, surgery, critical care, end of life care, outpatient and diagnostic services. The Royal Bournemouth provides services for a population of around 550,000 local people – a number which rises during the summer months due to the attraction of the area as a destination for tourists. The hospital’s radiology department has collaborated with Canon Medical for many years. In addition to the new Aquilion ONE / INSIGHT Edition CT, the department has other Canon CT scanners including an Aquilion ONE / GENESIS Edition and an Aquilion Serve.
(left) Mr. Matthew Benbow (Superintendent Radiographer of CT and MRI) and Dr. Russell Bull (MD, Consultant Radiologist and Lead CT at the Radiology Department) at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital, UK, with Canon's Aquilion ONE / INSIGHT Edition.
Training a large team
The Aquilion ONE / INSIGHT Edition has already delivered many benefits to the 24-strong team of radiologists and 30 radiographers.
“It’s been very easy to train the radiographers on the Aquilion ONE / INSIGHT Edition, because it’s much simpler due to the new efficient INSTINX workflow solution. In fact, it guides the radiographers through the process in a way that the previous one didn’t. It’s much more logical. It’s much more intuitive,” remarked Dr. Bull.
“All of the radiographers prefer the new interface to the other one. And they are scanning much faster as well. It’s easier to train and they are quicker,” he continued.
The Aquilion ONE / INSIGHT Edition has already delivered many benefits to the 24-strong team of radiologists and 30 radiographers.
“It’s been very easy to train the radiographers on the Aquilion ONE / INSIGHT Edition, because it’s much simpler due to the new efficient INSTINX workflow solution. In fact, it guides the radiographers through the process in a way that the previous one didn’t. It’s much more logical. It’s much more intuitive,” remarked Dr. Bull.
“All of the radiographers prefer the new interface to the other one. And they are scanning much faster as well. It’s easier to train and they are quicker,” he continued.
Abdominal images reconstructed with different reconstruction algorithms on 0.5 mm slice thickness.
A 0.2 mSv SilverBeam chest scan from a patient with lung emphysema.
“The benefit of PIQE 1024 is that it gives us much higher spatial resolution but without increasing the radiation dose.”
Dr. Russell Bull,
Royal Bournemouth Hospital, UK.
Improved resolution
With the Aquilion ONE / INSIGHT Edition’s advanced Deep Learning Reconstruction (DLR), Dr. Bull sees a big improvement in image quality.
“The images are a lot less noisy and have fewer artefacts. We get better images, but without increasing the radiation dose,” he said. “Generally, the Deep Learning Reconstruction has been very well accepted by our radiologists. The Aquilion ONE / INSIGHT Edition utilizes two types of DLR, one of them is Advanced intelligent Clear-IQ Engine (AiCE), which we tend to use in the body, and Precise IQ Engine (PIQE), which we tend to use for the coronary arteries at the moment but is also available for body examinations.”
“The benefit of PIQE 1024 is that it gives us much higher spatial resolution without increasing radiation dose. As it improves spatial resolution, we can image coronary arteries with calcification and stents and we can reduce blooming artefacts. We’ve only had it five weeks, but we are much more confident in our diagnosis because the resolution is much higher,” he added.
High quality at very low dose
Dr. Bull and his team also use the SilverBeam Filter for high-quality images at very low dose.
“We are not just going for low dose - we aim for high image quality at low dose. We are able to do that with SilverBeam,” he remarked. “We don’t just use it for lung cancer screening, we use it for standard chest imaging. We also use it for bone imaging because we get much fewer artefacts and the dose is so much lower. If it’s a spine or sinuses, or if we are looking for a hip fracture, we will use SilverBeam.”
Dr. Russell Bull
Dr. Russell Bull was appointed as a consultant radiologist at Bournemouth, UK, in 2000. Dr. Bull initially worked as a general cross-sectional radiologist and started a cardiac CT service at Bournemouth in 2004 using a Canon Aquilion 16. For the last 13 years he has worked almost exclusively as a cardiothoracic radiologist with his time split between cardiac CT and MRI. His interests include the promotion of CT as a low-dose technique and increasing efficiency within radiology departments by optimizing technology and workflows.
Aquilion ONE / INSIGHT Edition
The Aquilion ONE / INSIGHT Edition delivers exceptional image quality thanks to cutting-edge Deep Learning Reconstruction technology. It provides super resolution imaging of the whole body, which is essential for the accurate diagnosis of complex pathologies, particularly in cardiology, oncology, and emergency care.
With the Aquilion ONE / INSIGHT Edition’s advanced Deep Learning Reconstruction (DLR), Dr. Bull sees a big improvement in image quality.
“The images are a lot less noisy and have fewer artefacts. We get better images, but without increasing the radiation dose,” he said. “Generally, the Deep Learning Reconstruction has been very well accepted by our radiologists. The Aquilion ONE / INSIGHT Edition utilizes two types of DLR, one of them is Advanced intelligent Clear-IQ Engine (AiCE), which we tend to use in the body, and Precise IQ Engine (PIQE), which we tend to use for the coronary arteries at the moment but is also available for body examinations.”
“The benefit of PIQE 1024 is that it gives us much higher spatial resolution without increasing radiation dose. As it improves spatial resolution, we can image coronary arteries with calcification and stents and we can reduce blooming artefacts. We’ve only had it five weeks, but we are much more confident in our diagnosis because the resolution is much higher,” he added.
High quality at very low dose
Dr. Bull and his team also use the SilverBeam Filter for high-quality images at very low dose.
“We are not just going for low dose - we aim for high image quality at low dose. We are able to do that with SilverBeam,” he remarked. “We don’t just use it for lung cancer screening, we use it for standard chest imaging. We also use it for bone imaging because we get much fewer artefacts and the dose is so much lower. If it’s a spine or sinuses, or if we are looking for a hip fracture, we will use SilverBeam.”
Dr. Russell Bull
Dr. Russell Bull was appointed as a consultant radiologist at Bournemouth, UK, in 2000. Dr. Bull initially worked as a general cross-sectional radiologist and started a cardiac CT service at Bournemouth in 2004 using a Canon Aquilion 16. For the last 13 years he has worked almost exclusively as a cardiothoracic radiologist with his time split between cardiac CT and MRI. His interests include the promotion of CT as a low-dose technique and increasing efficiency within radiology departments by optimizing technology and workflows.
Aquilion ONE / INSIGHT Edition
The Aquilion ONE / INSIGHT Edition delivers exceptional image quality thanks to cutting-edge Deep Learning Reconstruction technology. It provides super resolution imaging of the whole body, which is essential for the accurate diagnosis of complex pathologies, particularly in cardiology, oncology, and emergency care.
Better contrast enhancement
Dr. Bull and his team use 70kVp when they want better contrast enhancement.
“We use 70-kVp to do delayed imaging of the heart to see if there is a blood clot in the left atrial appendage. We use 70-kVp because you get much better contrast enhancement. We also use it when we want to use a very small amount of contrast with patients who have poor kidney function. We have specific CTA protocols, like CTPA, set up in our scanner for these patients.”
Scanning challenging patients
The whole team at the Radiology Department were surprised how much better the Aquilion ONE / INSIGHT Edition was for scanning larger patients.
Dr. Bull and his team use 70kVp when they want better contrast enhancement.
“We use 70-kVp to do delayed imaging of the heart to see if there is a blood clot in the left atrial appendage. We use 70-kVp because you get much better contrast enhancement. We also use it when we want to use a very small amount of contrast with patients who have poor kidney function. We have specific CTA protocols, like CTPA, set up in our scanner for these patients.”
Scanning challenging patients
The whole team at the Radiology Department were surprised how much better the Aquilion ONE / INSIGHT Edition was for scanning larger patients.
Cardiac CTA with different reconstructions algorithms of the LAD showing increased spatial resolution with PIQE 1024.
“As the tube is much more powerful and the detector is much more efficient, we are able to image larger patients with fewer artefacts and image noise than on our previous systems,” said Dr. Bull. “Also the faster rotation speed allows us to perform coronary CTA in patients with higher heart rates.”
Smooth transition to new technology
Installing and integrating the new system at the hospital has been seamless, and with the support of Canon Medical, the department has been able to adopt the new technology.
“We had great support both from Canon Medical Systems UK, Canon Medical Systems Europe and Canon Medical Systems Corporation (Japan),” he said. “All of these people supporting us has made a huge difference. It was wonderful. It really helped us because the new technology is quite different. I think we are still learning, but we learned much faster because of the excellent support.”
Precise IQ Engine (PIQE)
PIQE is a Deep Learning Reconstruction algorithm that maximizes the inherent resolution of a CT to provide Super Resolution 1024 matrix images. PIQE images show sharper anatomical detail for better delineation of small anatomical structures for a more definitive diagnosis.
Smooth transition to new technology
Installing and integrating the new system at the hospital has been seamless, and with the support of Canon Medical, the department has been able to adopt the new technology.
“We had great support both from Canon Medical Systems UK, Canon Medical Systems Europe and Canon Medical Systems Corporation (Japan),” he said. “All of these people supporting us has made a huge difference. It was wonderful. It really helped us because the new technology is quite different. I think we are still learning, but we learned much faster because of the excellent support.”
Precise IQ Engine (PIQE)
PIQE is a Deep Learning Reconstruction algorithm that maximizes the inherent resolution of a CT to provide Super Resolution 1024 matrix images. PIQE images show sharper anatomical detail for better delineation of small anatomical structures for a more definitive diagnosis.
SilverBeam scan of the cervical spine. Images are showing reduced artefacts in the shoulder region.
0.5 mm slice thickness PIQE 1024 abdominal images showing increased spatial resolution in this patient with liver lesions.
INSTINX
INSTINX is a total workflow experience redesigned from the ground up to set new standards in efficiency and consistency. Every detail of the workflow has been thoroughly refined based on clinical testing in medical centers around the world. Now every operation is more intuitive and can be learned faster than ever before. This ease of use contributes to work satisfaction, time savings and flexible allocation of resources.
SilverBeam Filter
SilverBeam is a filter for Aquilion CT that incorporates silver to selectively optimize the beam energy. It removes low-energy photons from the beam spectrum, which do not contribute to image quality, but do increase dose and scatter. When combined with Canon Medical’s Advanced intelligent Clear IQ Engine (AiCE) technology, this beam-shaping energy filter can harness the power of AI to deliver high image quality and low noise for dedicated applications.
INSTINX is a total workflow experience redesigned from the ground up to set new standards in efficiency and consistency. Every detail of the workflow has been thoroughly refined based on clinical testing in medical centers around the world. Now every operation is more intuitive and can be learned faster than ever before. This ease of use contributes to work satisfaction, time savings and flexible allocation of resources.
SilverBeam Filter
SilverBeam is a filter for Aquilion CT that incorporates silver to selectively optimize the beam energy. It removes low-energy photons from the beam spectrum, which do not contribute to image quality, but do increase dose and scatter. When combined with Canon Medical’s Advanced intelligent Clear IQ Engine (AiCE) technology, this beam-shaping energy filter can harness the power of AI to deliver high image quality and low noise for dedicated applications.
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