GE features new flagship CT

The superpremium Discovery CT750 HD (high definition) CT scanner debuted Sunday in the GE Healthcare booth. It features technology shown as work-in-progress at last year's RSNA meeting that boosts spatial resolution to 230 microns and improves contrast resolution 33% in the body to 21.5 lp/cm and 47% in the heart to 14 lp/cm, according to the company.

Another improvement, Volume Shuttle, extends the breadth of GE's detector enough to dynamically cover whole organs, including the heart, lungs, brain, and liver.

Advances are based on a newly developed x-ray tube, generator, and detector. Particularly notable is the Gemstone detector, composed of garnet-based material. This, the first new detector material from GE in 20 years, is 100 times faster than the HiLite ceramic built into GE predecessors, according to the company.

The unique components of Discovery CT750 HD allow multispectral imaging, called Gemstone Spectral Imaging. Capture of data at different energy levels may reveal information specific to certain clinical conditions and reduce or eliminate artifacts. Different energies can be applied using a single detector and x-ray tube subsystem, which can switch between high and low energies in 0.5 msec, opening the door to look beyond the shades of gray and see the individual densities of tissues.

Multispectral imaging may be used to distinguish liver lesions or types of kidney stones. It might also be leveraged to eliminate artifacts, such as calcium blooming, by subtracting calcium from vascular images.

The company showed the integrated and FDA-cleared system last spring at the International Symposium on Multidetector-Row CT in Las Vegas under a slightly different moniker, the LightSpeed 750 HD. The new name reflects a strategy at GE to group its flagship products under the "Discovery" heading. This strategy is expressed elsewhere in the GE booth, notably in MR with the RSNA debuts of 1.5T and 3T scanners.