Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc. will unveil women’s imaging ultrasound techniques at RSNA 2008, including breast imaging techniques that enable physicians to better evaluate breast lesions and Spatio-Temporal Image Correlation (STIC) technology to assess the fetal heart.
Mammography is the gold standard for detecting micro-calcifications in the breast. Toshiba has developed a proprietary ultrasound technology called MicroPure to help identify and eventually characterize these micro-calcifications.
Elastography (works-in-progress) is a noninvasive medical imaging technique that detects tumors based on their stiffness (elasticity) compared to normal tissue. The tissue is examined before and after it is compressed slightly. Cancerous tumors tend to be many times stiffer than normal tissue. Many tumors, including breast tumors, show up better in an elastogram than in conventional ultrasonic images. Toshiba’s method is highly reproducible and provides a quantitative output.
Spatio-Temporal Image Correlation (STIC) is a gating technique used to assess the fetal heart. Data is acquired via an automatic volume acquisition capturing a high number of 2D frames in a volume set. The resulting volume image displays a loop of the beating fetal heart. Because there is 3D information behind each frame, scan planes can be moved, rotated and manipulated. Together with Cavity mode, where hollow structures are displayed as solid and the tissue is removed, STIC may be beneficial in the detection of fetal heart pathologies.