TimCT is a new poorly-named MR scanner from Siemens that features a continuous movement table, a technology that the company believes will change magnetic resonance imaging fundamentally:
For the first time, T-class with syngo TimCT continuously scans patients from head to toe as it does in Computed Tomography. During the examination, the table moves continuously through the magnet. First and foremost, syngo TimCT improves the workflow. Prior to this technology, pelvic/leg angiography, for example, was performed step-by-step. This required more time than continuous table movement. Depending on the patient’s symptoms, examinations need to be performed of various locations in the body. The greater the number of individual work steps, the more intricate and error-prone the examination. But syngo TimCT reduces the number of work steps for a pelvic/leg angiography by 50 percent. This saves time and also reduces costs while increasing diagnostic safety. At the same time syngo TimCT improves the image quality as the body region just being scanned is in the center of the magnet. Here the measurement results produce the highest level of quality.
Previously, images of different body regions were generated in individual sections and subsequently combined through data processing. This led to longer examination times for the patient. Today, however, the patient can be examined with syngo TimCT and continuous table move. Not more than one scan is required for a seamless image. “The first scans already showed us the potential of this technology. Especially with diseases of the vessels or tumors, we see tremendous improvements in the workflow”, says Jörg Barkhausen, (MD) senior physician of radiology at the University Clinic Essen, the site of the first system.
Essen has already discovered a number of advantages offered by the new technology, others will undergo closer examination.