Hitachi reclaims Summit gamma cameras

Hitachi Medical of Tokyo will use the RSNA meeting as a springboardin its plan to reenter the nuclear medicine market with directsales and marketing of digital gamma cameras it has manufacturedfor Summit Nuclear. Hitachi will describe the products as works-in-progresson panels in its RSNA booth (SCAN 10/11/95).

Hitachi manufactured the single-head 1024RZ and the dual-headT-22 for Summit, which this year merged with Sopha Medical toform SMV (SCAN 6/21/95). SMV decided to deemphasize the Hitachi-madecameras in favor of systems of its own design.

Hitachi has updated the 1024RZ and T-22 cameras and is resubmittinga 510(k) application for them under the trade name SPECTRADigital.Hitachi is also planning to develop a digital variable-angle dual-headgamma camera for release next year.

In MRI, Hitachi will highlight enhancements to its Airis andStratis platforms, introduced at last year's meeting. A new softwarerelease for the open-configuration Airis and the MRP-7000 0.3-teslaconventional magnet will enable the use of new fast scanning andMR angiography packages. On the 1.5-tesla Stratis, Hitachi willshow phased-array coils and multishot echo-planar imaging as works-in-progress.