Senographe Pristina features an option to use a first-in-industry patient-assisted compression remote control to enable the patient, with the help of a technologist, to set the compression that feels right for her.
The handheld wireless remote control, called Pristina Dueta, allows patients to adjust the compression force after breast positioning. The technologist then guides the patient while she operates the remote control to adjust compression until she reaches an adequate compression level. The design strives to minimize women’s perceived pain and discomfort by giving them an active role in the application of compression.
In a patient survey conducted with 160 patients in two sites in Europe, 4 out of 5 patients who received their mammogram on the Pristina coupled with Pristina Dueta found it improved the comfort of their exam. Pristina has other design enhancements to improve exam comfort. The gentle, rounded corners of the image receptor or “bucky”, where the woman places her breasts, helps reduce discomfort and anxiety. It is also thinner so there’s less hard metal pushing into the patients’ ribs. The design also changes the way the patient is standing: Instead of requiring patients to grab conventional handgrips, which may cause tensing of pectoral muscles and therefore make it harder for the technologist to acquire clear images, patients can instead lean comfortably on armrests and relax their muscles to simplify positioning, compression and image acquisition.
By improving patient comfort, technologists can focus on precise positioning, potentially making the exam easier and faster. Poor positioning is a leading cause of retakes, and the lack of proper positioning may decrease mammography sensitivity. Pristina also includes the latest in 3D digital mammography technology, also known as digital breast tomosynthesis, which delivers superior diagnostic accuracy at the same low dose as a 2D mammography exam – and the lowest patient dose of all FDA-approved 3D mammography systems.
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AI-Rad Companion Chest CT is a software assistant that brings artificial intelligence (AI) to computed tomography (CT). Using CT images of the thorax (chest), the software can differentiate between the various structures of the chest, highlight them individually, and mark and measure potential abnormalities. This applies equally to organs such as the heart and lungs, the aorta and the vertebral bodies. The software automatically turns the findings into a quantitative report. AI-Rad Companion Chest CT is the first application based on the new AI-Rad Companion platform. It is designed to help radiologists interpret images faster and more accurately, and to reduce the time involved in documenting results. CT examinations of the thorax are common procedures in daily clinical practice. For radiologists, this means more examinations in a limited amount of time and usually for low reimbursement rates. In radiology, examinations of the chest, a region containing multiple organs, are also challenging because the images display a wide variety of information. Radiologists mainly assess images regarding the primary indication – in other words, the possible disease – which was the reason for performing the CT scan. By contrast, the algorithms in AI-Rad Companion Chest CT pay equal attention to all areas of the chest and can mark abnormalities in places that the radiologist might not consider so closely. The software assistant generates standardized, reproducible, and quantitative reports based on the AI-supported analysis. AI-Rad Companion Chest CT currently supports a variety of tasks, such as identifying lung lesions and calculating cardiovascular risk based on an analysis of coronary artery calcification on non-ECG-triggered CT images. A study in collaboration with the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) has also shown that AI-Rad Companion Chest CT can segment and measure the diameter of the aorta, an important parameter for potential aneurysms. AI-Rad Companion Chest CT also examines the spine in the patient’s chest region. It detects and segments the individual vertebrae, labels and analyses them for bone density and possible fractures. This can be helpful for detecting osteoporotic changes at an early stage. AI-Rad Companion Chest CT is a cloud-based solution and uses certified, secure teamplay infrastructure that complies with the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in the U.S., and with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the EU. The software integrates seamlessly into existing clinical workflows and conforms to Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) standards. The images and all supporting information can be made automatically available in the picture archiving and communication system (PACS) in line with the radiologist’s individual requirements. The solution is particularly helpful for time-consuming, basic, and repetitive tasks. AI-Rad Companion Chest CT is vendor-neutral and can analyse image data from all CT manufacturers.

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The two new scanners in the Somatom go. platform – Somatom go.All and Somatom go.Top – now make the mobile workflow available for advanced clinical fields such as cardiology and CT-guided intervention. This mobile workflow operated via tablet enables the user to interact with the patient being closer to him/her. With a rotation time of 0.33 seconds and the Stellar detector technology, the 64-slice Somatom go.All can cover scan ranges of up to 100 millimeters in one second. The 128-slice Somatom go.Top can perform whole-body scans of up to 200 centimeters with a scan speed of up to 175 millimeters per second. Users can deploy the Somatom go. platform’s mobile workflow in advanced clinical fields such as emergency medicine, interventional radiology (steered by Guide&GO, the first tablet-based solution for CT-guided interventions), and even cardiology. The new X-ray tube allows users to adjust the tube voltage in steps of 10 kilovolts while keeping the tube current high – and thus to adapt the settings to each patient’s individual anatomy. Examinations performed at just 70 kilovolts with a current of up to 825 milliamps, for instance, can significantly reduce X-ray dose and the amount of contrast medium required. Somatom go.Top also offers TwinBeam Dual Energy imaging, which means users can examine the same body region at two different energy levels simultaneously. The technology splits the X-ray beam into two energy spectra before it reaches the patient. With a scan mode that is not different to a routine CT examination, TwinBeam Dual Energy can therefore acquire two image datasets that provide additional information about the tissue. This is particularly beneficial in soft tissue differentiation and for oncology.  All scanners belonging to the Somatom go. platform (including the two new additions) are handled via a tablet that can be used to control all routine and advanced examinations. Radiology technologists can thus stay close to their patients during the entire scan preparation process, which makes the experience much more pleasant for the patients, especially if they are children. Further innovative hardware designs are introduced with the Somatom go. platform. After the integration of all computer hardware into the gantry, a new injector arm is now available. This ergonomic solution allows the user to swivel the tablet and the injector around the gantry, flexibly placing them wherever needed.

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A recent study [1] used a SoundEar3-300 noise warning sign as an isolated intervention to determine whether visualizing noise could produce a sustained noise reduction in adult critical care. It proved a significant noise reduction of 3.9 dB (from 57.4 dB) in median ambient sound levels and saw a significant reduction in peak sound levels (0.7 dB reduction from 66.0 dB). After 4 months with continued use of the SoundEar3-300, researchers found a sustained noise reduction of 3.6 dB compared to baseline recording before introducing the SoundEar. The device acted as an isolated intervention to significantly reduce night-time ambient and peak sound levels, a change that was sustained after a four-month period.
In another study from 2014 [2], a SoundEar device was used as a part of a noise reducing initiative at an operating theatre in Hannover, Germany. This study showed a significant reduction in noise levels in the operating theatre from 63 dB to 59 dB. Moreover, the noise reduction led to a significant reduction in the number of complications after surgery and reduced surgeons’ stress levels by 20%.
1. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1751143718767773#articleShareContainer
2. https://www.pubfacts.com/detail/24394594/A-noise-reduction-program-in-a-pediatric-operation-theatre-is-associated-with-surgeons-benefits-and- www.soundear.com

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