Salford Royal’s CT addition will support complex and routine clinical procedures
Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust has installed an Aquilion Prime SP CT from Canon Medical Systems in a scanning room created from a relocated angio suite. An extensive range of applications have been included to boost its versatility across a range of complex and routine clinical procedures in neuro, cardiac, orthopaedic, oncology, CT-guided intervention and general work.
“The new Aquilion Prime SP CT has made our working life much easier. We used to be split over three departments but are now reconfigured to two within the same area,” said CT lead radiographer Angela Abbott. “This means that should there be any downtime or we are behind on our lists, we can move to another scanner with less disruption to patients. We also have a new recovery room attached o the CT suite which means we can recover our own biopsy patients without taking up a valuable hospital bed elsewhere. We are looking to start cardiac CT scanning soon and the versatility of the scanner will give patients a service much closer to home.”
The Aquilion Prime is designed to keep pace with demanding worklists and deliver high quality images at the lowest possible dose for every patient. Using the application AIDR 3D, the scanner delivers enhanced iterative reconstruction to ensure excellent image detail with significant dose savings for all patients. SEMAR is also included and uses a reconstruction technique to deliver clearer image quality during scanning. It removes artefacts caused by metal to improve visualisation of the implant, supporting bone and adjacent soft tissue for clearer and more confident image review.
“The SEMAR application is really helpful when imaging patients with metal implants. We do lots of spinal and orthopaedic imaging, especially on scoliosis patients, so having clear images without distortion is much better,” continued Abbott.
“We are also increasingly seeing patients with hip and knee replacements; prior to the installation we would have struggled to gain clinically confident images when doing general cancer work – now we can get a much clearer view of the lower pelvis and bladder area.”
Picture: Radiographer Caroline Roberts, advanced practitioner CT radiographer Linda Mason, Canon Medical Systems UK account manager Colin Murray, advanced practitioner CT radiographer Arianne Carruth, project manager James King and CT lead radiographer Angela Abbott.
Published on page 3 of the May 2020 issue of RAD Magazine.