At the 62nd Annual Scientific Session & Expo of the American College of Cardiology (ACC), March 9-11 in San Francisco, Siemens Healthcare (Booth #S1909, Moscone South, Moscone Center) will offer solutions for sustainable cardiovascular care to help healthcare professionals move their cardiovascular care forward, enabling improved patient outcomes and enhanced economic efficiency. Offering a comprehensive portfolio of systems and support solutions that range from imaging modalities to information technology (IT) and in vitro diagnostics, Siemens is uniquely positioned to aid the cardiovascular community in making sound clinical decisions, providing safer procedures, improving operational efficiency, and maximizing its investments in healthcare technology and IT – ultimately helping to make the delivery of cardio-vascular care more sustainable.
“At ACC 2013, Siemens will reaffirm its status as a reliable innovator of cardiovascular systems and related tools,” says Claus Grill, vice president, angiographic, cardiac and X-ray systems, Siemens Healthcare. “With our comprehensive cardiovascular portfolio, Siemens is uniquely positioned to enable providers to deliver the high-quality, cost-effective cardiovascular care that is necessary to remain competitive in the modern healthcare landscape.” This offering of innovative health care solutions at competitive prices is a main goal of the Healthcare Sector’s Agenda 2013 global initiative.
Advances in interventional cardiology
Siemens will display its revolutionary new Artis Q and Artis Q.zen angiography system family, which features X-ray tube and detector technology designed to improve minimally invasive therapy for coronary artery disease (CAD), structural heart disease (SHD), pediatrics, and electrophysiology.
The Artis Q.zen product line has been designed to combine the X-ray tube with a detector technology that allows imaging at ultra-low radiation levels. Artis Q.zen im-aging can utilize doses as low as half the standard levels applied in angiography – an improvement resulting from several innovations, including a fundamental change in detector technology. The new crystalline silicon structure of the Artis Q.zen detector is designed to be more homogenous, allowing for more effective amplification of the signal, greatly reducing electronic noise even at ultra-low doses. The Artis Q.zen was developed to support better imaging quality at ultra-low-dose ranges, reducing radiation exposure for patients, physicians, and medical staff –which is particularly important in dose-sensitive application fields such as percutaneous coronary interventions, pediatric cardiology, and electrophysiology.
In addition to these hardware innovations are software applications designed to improve interventional imaging. In the treatment of CAD, the new integrated IVUS (intravascular ultrasound) map application automatically and precisely co-registers IVUS images and angiography images, adding detailed IVUS data such as vessel, lumen, and wall structure. Additionally, CLEARstent Live allows the cardiologist to image stents with motion stabilization in real time by freezing motion in the region defined by the balloon markers.
Expanded ACUSON family of ultrasound systems
Siemens also will demonstrate Release 3.0 of the ACUSON SC2000™ volume imaging ultrasound system –a fully functional 2D and volume imaging ultrasound system that expands the usability of Siemens’ established ACUSON SC2000 system into pediatric echocardiography applications. It is also designed to raise system performance, workflow, and ease of use.
Release 3.0 of the ACUSON SC2000 system offers a neonatal transducer that is optimized for pediatric imaging, with significant improvements in color Doppler and true fidelity color Doppler processing. The system also features a small transesophageal transducer optimized for pediatrics and neonatal imaging. Additionally, Release 3.0 of the ACUSON SC2000 system expands Siemens’portfolio of knowledge-based automated applications. The eSie Left Heart™ Measurement Package enables accurate, reproducible measurements of the left ventricle and left atrium. Siemens’ Native NTEQ™ ultrasound technology is a real-time technique that continuously optimizes image parameters that were previously unavailable for operator adjustment, enabling improved image quality without the need for additional steps, and encouraging efficient, intuitive, and automated optimization of 2D images. The Capture preview function of the ACUSON SC2000 system, Release 3.0 enables the user to review a sonography clip before storing it to an exam report. To help ensure more secure and streamlined connectivity, Release 3.0 of the ACUSON SC2000 also offers embedded wireless networking capabilities, improving ease of use in a dynamic clinical setting.
Also showcased for the first time at ACC is the ACUSON X700™ ultrasound system. Fully featured for transthoracic, transesophageal (TEE), and intracardiac echocardiography imaging, the ACUSON X700 system comes standard with many advanced imaging technologies previously available only on Siemens’ premium ACUSON S Family™ of ultrasound systems, including Micropinless (MP) transducer technology. The five MP transducers on the ACUSON X700 system are designed to offer higher signal fidelity and improve signal-to-noise ratio, enhancing signal quality.
Reducing dose in cardiac CT
Siemens has a history of providing low-dose solutions for cardiovascular imaging. The SOMATOM® Definition Flash, Siemens’ dual-source CT system, operates at a reduced radiation dose, capable of performing a spiral heart scan with a dose of less than 1 millisevert (mSv) in a quarter of a second in clinical routine (the average annual background radiation dose for humans worldwide is roughly 2.4 mSv). With the addition of Siemens’ CT iterative reconstruction SAFIRE (Sinogram Affirmed Iterative Reconstruction), which can drive down doses up to 60 percent¹, and the Stellar Detector – the first fully integrated detector that virtually eliminates electronic noise – the SOMATOM Definition Flash has the potential to enable clinicians to reduce patient dose even further.
Additionally, the SOMATOM Definition Flash and syngo.via Cardiovascular Engine are the ideal couple for transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) planning.
Offering nuclear cardiology solutions
Nuclear cardiologists who use Siemens’Symbia® S and Symbia T single-photon emission CT (SPECT) and SPECT●CT systems can dramatically reduce the length of imaging protocols via IQ●SPECT, a field-upgradeable hardware/software combination that enables the reduction of cardiac imaging protocols from 20 minutes to under five minutes. These shortened exams allow a sustainable approach to nuclear cardiology that potentially enables decreased radiation dose to patients, provides high-quality diagnostic information, and allows users to better utilize an imaging re-source.
Additionally, Siemens’ Biograph® mCT PET●CT helps assess CAD and heart damage as well as differentiate living muscle from damaged muscle. Also featured with cardiac PET at ACC 2013: syngo Myocardial Blood Flow, which provides measurement of myocardial blood flow analysis with single-injection protocols and no additional scan time or dose.
Optimizing cardiac, vascular imaging with Dot
Cardiac MRI has established itself as an accurate, highly reproducible imaging modality, thanks in part to Siemens’Dot™ (day optimizing throughput) workflow technology. Developed to reduce the complexity of cardiac MRI scanning and to increase productivity, the Cardiac Dot Engine guides the user through cardiac exams. With a few mouse clicks, it automatically selects customized protocols based on the condition and clinical indication of the patient. Through user guidance, patient personalization, and exam automation provided by Dot, facilities can increase their productivity up to 50 percent.² The Cardiac Dot Engine is available with the MAGNETOM® Aera and MAGNETOM Avanto 1.5T systems, and the MAGNETOM Skyra, MAGNETOM Spectra, and MAGNETOM Verio 3T scanners.
Angio Dot Engine and TimCT Angiography are unique Siemens offerings that help acquire MR angiography (MRA) more efficiently and help ensure improved image quality.
Launched in November 2011, “Agenda 2013” is the initiative of the Siemens Healthcare Sector to further strengthen its innovative power and competitiveness. Specific measures, which will be implemented by the end of 2013, have been defined in four fields of action: innovation, competitiveness, regional footprint, and people development.
The Siemens Healthcare Sector is one of the world's largest suppliers to the healthcare industry and a trendsetter in medical imaging, laboratory diagnostics, medical information technology and hearing aids. Siemens offers its customers products and solutions for the entire range of patient care from a single source – from prevention and early detection to diagnosis, and on to treatment and aftercare. By optimizing clinical workflows for the most common diseases, Siemens also makes healthcare faster, better and more cost-effective. Siemens Healthcare employs some 51,000 employees worldwide and operates around the world. In fiscal year 2012 (to September 30), the Sector posted revenue of 13.6 billion euros and profit of around 1.8 billion euros. For further information please visit: www.siemens.com/healthcare.
