FDA Clears Siemens Somatom Force CT System

April 23, 2014—Siemens Healthcare (Malvern, PA) announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared the company’s Somatom Force CT system. The system conducts kidney-friendly scanning, freezes motion with free-breathing CT, and advances preventive care initiatives with low-dose lung and colon imaging.

Siemens noted that with two sets of x-ray tubes and detectors, the company’s next-generation Somatom Force dual-source CT system extends advanced imaging to all patients, including some of the most challenging: young children, patients with renal insufficiency, and patients who are unable to hold their breath. The Somatom Force makes low-dose CT available for an even broader array of patients; the power reserves of its Vectron tube allow the system to deliver routine adult imaging with fast, low-dose protocols.

Additionally, the power reserves enable the system to achieve low-kilovoltage (kV) imaging results. Lowering kV levels may enhance the contrast-to-noise ratio, lower the patient’s radiation dose, and increase the enhancement of contrast medium, so that less contrast is needed. The Somatom Force’s low-kV imaging broadens its CT application for patients with renal insufficiency.

The Vectron tube’s low-kV and high-milliampere capabilities allow scanning with a very high tube current of up to 1300 milliampere at 70, 80, and 90 kV. With this, a high tube output can be achieved even for low kV settings. This scan configuration is also available for conventional spiral or sequential scanning.

In the Siemens press release, Joseph Schoepf, MD, commented, “The massively enhanced tube power of the Somatom Force enables imaging that can be acquired at very low kV settings—and thus at a lower level of radiation dose—routinely in adult patients and even those of a larger body type. In the past, these low-kV settings would have resulted in noisy, nondiagnostic studies.” Dr. Schoepf is Director of CT Research and Development and Professor of Radiology and Cardiology at Medical University of South Carolina.

Also in the company announcement, neuroradiologist Lawrence N. Tanenbaum, MD, stated, “The Somatom Force enables routine 70 kV imaging—a technique poised to make a tremendous impact in day-to-day scanning of adult and pediatric patients, with benefits such as decreased radiation dose and impressive time-resolved imaging.”

The Somatom Force also may enable low-dose imaging in lung and colon examinations. Low-dose imaging is attributable to two spectral filters (known as selective photon shields) that optimize the x-ray spectrum to significantly improve air/soft tissue contrast, advised Siemens Healthcare.