GE Healthcare received FDA approval of its SenoClaire breast tomosynthesis system, an advanced mammography device that produces cross-sectional images in addition to traditional 2D exposures. The system is an upgrade to the Senographe Essential mammograph, a package that includes both new hardware and software.
SenoClaire uses an iterative reconstruction algorithm to combine data gathered from nine images taken of the breast at different angles into a 3D view. This purportedly provides greater specificity and helps identify lesion margins with greater accuracy. GE is touting the system to be able to provide imaging no worse than traditional 2-view digital mammography, but at half the dose and with only one compression of the breast.
From GE Healthcare:
Due to its low dose and non-inferior clinical accuracy, SenoClaire has the potential to replace digital mammography exams in screening to detect breast cancer. The SenoClaire detector delivers high DQE at low dose for visualizing microcalcifications without binning, a process that regroups pixels for faster readout speeds and improved signal-to-noise ratios, but with reduced image quality.
- Step-and-shoot tube motion preserves microcalcification sharpness and avoids image blur, since the tube makes a complete stop for each of the nine exposures. This provides higher peak contrast for microcalcifications than traditional continuous tube motion.
- An anti-scatter solution designed for tomosynthesis, the SenoClaire grid in 3D reduces scattered radiation and lets you see more clearly in 3D for breasts of above-average thickness, while preserving dose and performance.
- SenoClaire uses ASiRDBT, an iterative reconstruction algorithm that yields FFDM-like images and positively impacts microcalcification conspicuity versus the traditional Filtered Back Projection (FBP) algorithm.
It’s a requirement of dose performance that patient X-ray dose be kept as low as reasonably acceptable. The dose of a SenoClaire 3D view is equivalent to that of a 2D standard acquisition of the same view.
Here’s a demo of the SenoClaire:
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Product page: SenoClaire…