Siemens Healthcare has unveiled the MAMMOMAT Inspiration Prime Edition, a new evolution that lowers dose by replacing the standard scatter radiation grid with a new algorithm for progressive image reconstruction.
Unveiled at the 98th Congress of the Radiological Society of North America 2012, the new algorithm identifies scatter-causing structures and calculates a corrected image, enabling clinicians to achieve high-quality images with up to 30% less dose.
Lynn Blackburn, business manager for mammography, surgery and urology at Siemens Healthcare, said: “In digital X-ray breast imaging, dose passes through the examined breast to a detector. Primary radiation supplies the information needed to produce the X-ray image, while scattered radiation is absorbed by special grids positioned between the breast and the detector. Unfortunately, these scatter grids also absorb part of the all-important primary radiation, forcing clinicians to use a higher dose to obtain images of desired quality. Since mammography means regular screening of healthy women, minimising dose is extremely important.”
Of the new technology, she added: “This evolution in mammography is an exciting development for the field and we look forward to bringing it to the UK marketplace. Currently nearly two million women are screened annually with some 15,000 cancers detected, so it is of huge importance that we can make quantifiable dose savings but still maintain excellent image quality.”
The new reconstruction algorithm for the MAMMOMAT Inspiration system – known as Progressive Reconstruction, Intelligently Minimising Exposure (Prime) – eliminates the need for the conventional scatter radiation grid. The Prime algorithm subsequently corrects the scattered radiation by identifying scatter-causing structures and recalculating the image. The primary radiation that radiologists rely upon remains intact. Therefore, a grid is no longer necessary and lower doses are sufficient to produce high-quality images.
The system will be available from early 2013.