Toshiba launches CAC scoring for Aquilion

Toshiba America Medical Systems has introduced a coronary artery calcium scoring (CACS) package for its helical CT system, Aquilion. The package includes Toshiba’s FDA-cleared ECG-Gating System and Minneapolis, MN-based Vital Images’ Vitrea visualization package, with the VScore calcium scoring option, which Toshiba has licensed. Toshiba’s CACS program first collects a 0.3-second partial scan with ECG-Gating System on Aquilion, reducing motion and artifacts. VScore is then used to evaluate a patient’s level and volume of arterial calcium.

The package is Toshiba’s latest offering in a series of CT upgrades. In September 1998, it introduced Aquilion, almost concurrently with GE’s launch of its multislice CT LightSpeed QX/i scanner (SCAN 9/16/98). A few months later, the Tustin, CA, company launched Asteion, a lower priced scanner line that also supports multislice imaging, at the European Congress of Radiology in Vienna (SCAN 3/3/99).