Philips Launches Spectral CT 7500 System

In its latest move with spectral CT, Philips Healthcare announced its new Spectral CT 7500 – a system designed for all patients and any clinical indications.

Spectral CT, which is now the company’s flagship super-premium scanner, offers higher sensitivity in detecting malignant findings, and according to company officials, Spectral CT 7500 offers better image quality, lower dose, and workflow integration.

“This latest intelligent system helps to bring clarity to defining moments in healthcare by delivering on certainty, simplicity, and reliability in every clinical area from cardiac care, to emergency radiology, diagnostic oncology, intervention, and radiation oncology,” said Kees Wesdorp, chief business leader of precision diagnosis at Philips. “Our detector-based spectral technology ensures spectral data is always available and is seamlessly integrated into current workflows, meaning scans are fast, and clinicians are able to send patients the right treatment pathway with a more confident diagnosis.”

Beam-hardening artificacts can make myocardial perfusion defects difficult to detect on conventional CT. Spectral CT reduces those artifacts, allowing for easier visualitzation and quantification of perfusion defect.

Credit: Philips Healthcare

According to Karim Boussebaa, business leader for CT and molecular imaging at Philips, the new scanner is designed to accommodate all patients from pediatric to bariatric. It can capture chest or head scans in less than a second and offers a patient couch that can support patients weighing up to 675 lbs (306 kg).

According to company data, the system uses the same dose as conventional machines and improves disease characterization and reduces the need for any repeat scans. Based on clinical testing results, Spectral CT 7500 has shown a 34-percent reduction in time-to-diagnosis, a 25-percent reduction in repeat scans, and a 30-percent drop in follow-up scans. It has also reduced the number of mouse clicks needed to capture a spectral scan by 68 percent.

Philips used its IQon scanner, which will still be available, as the launching pad for Spectral CT 7500. By comparison, Spectral CT 7500 captures 8 cm of data per gantry rotation – double that of the IQon scanner. Consequently, Spectral CT 7500 offers more comprehensive organ coverage, and there is no need to stitch images together.

Spectral CT 7500 has already secured 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, as well as the CE Mark in Europe. Philips is already working with early clinical sites in the United States, as well as Europe, and commercial shipments are expected this summer.