Royal Philips today announced new milestones in the development of the world’s first spectral detector angio computed tomography (CT) solution— Philips Spectral Angio CT suite—bringing the company’s breakthrough spectral CT imaging technology into an integrated hybrid angio CT suite. By combining its Spectral CT 7500 system and the image-guided therapy system—Azurion with FlexArm—in a fully integrated interventional suite solution, Philips aims to give physicians immediate access to these two key imaging modalities in a single room, enabling innovation in minimally-invasive procedures in areas such as oncology, stroke, and trauma care.
Expanding Philips’ clinical network
Leiden University Medical Center (Leiden, The Netherlands) has joined Philips’ global network of clinical partners to investigate how its spectral detector angio CT solution could offer new treatment opportunities and improve patient care.
“We are excited to co-create an innovation that could play a defining role in improving patient care in the space of interventional oncology,” said Mark Burgmans, head of Interventional Radiology at Leiden University Medical Center. “Adding spectral CT imaging to the interventional suite will enable us to offer new treatment opportunities, avoid moving patients from one imaging suite to another, and offer the unique benefits of spectral CT information when you need it.”
Philips is also working on its innovation with Mayo Clinic (Rochester, USA) and Baptist Health’s Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute (Miami, USA).
Philips Spectral Angio CT suite combines the company’s latest diagnosis and treatment technologies. Philips Azurion with FlexArm is the company’s next-generation image-guided therapy platform, integrating best-in-class imaging systems, software, and specialised diagnostic and therapeutic devices to support exceptional treatment for the most complex procedures. The addition of Philips’ award-winning Spectral CT 7500 system means physicians only need one scan to capture all the spectral information required to differentiate and quantify different tissues. Spectral CT enables improved detection, delineation, and quantification of lesions, leading to better-informed planning for minimally invasive procedures and more precise interventions.
It has already demonstrated higher sensitivity in detecting malignant findings and improved readings of incidental findings. With its ability to improve tissue characterisation, the Spectral CT 7500 offers significant benefits over conventional CT, the company states.
Research results show better targeted biopsies using spectral CT guidance
At this year’s Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiological Society of Europe Annual Meeting (CIRSE 2022; September 10–14, Barcelona, Spain) Filippo Piacentino, interventional radiologist at the University of Insubria (Varese, Italy), is giving a presentation on the value of spectral CT imaging guidance for performing high-confidence tumour biopsies. The results being presented illustrate the potential for Philips’ spectral CT technology to better guide biopsies by distinguishing between active and non-active regions in a tumour.
“With conventional CT, large masses may appear as a largely uniform mass, making highly targeted biopsy difficult,” said Filippo Piacentino. “By fusing images from Philips’ XperGuide live needle guidance with images from spectral CT, that are colour-coded based on the effective atomic number of tissues, and provide a large amount of additional information, we can now investigate the possibility of obtaining better defined biopsy targets with a fewer number of inconclusive biopsies.”
New clinical collaboration on reduction of the risk of tumour recurrence
Philips also announced a research collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, USA) to study the practicality of using spectral CT-based tissue temperature mapping to provide real-time feedback during tumour thermal ablation procedures to confirm its effectiveness before the patient leaves the room. This will potentially reduce the risk of localised tumour recurrence.
