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The London Chest Hospital has installs the first SOMATOM Definition Flash CT system in the UK which offers faster results and lower radiation doses than traditional models.

SOMATOM Definition Flash CT scanner, manufactured by Siemens Healthcare, was funded by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) and will enable experts at the Barts and The London Cardiovascular Biomedical Research Unit to undertake vital cardiac research.

The system can perform a detailed scan of the entire heart in just 250 milliseconds - less than half a heartbeat. Due to its high scanning speed, patients are exposed to a much lower radiation dose - three times less than the background radiation a person naturally absorbs in a year.

The Definition Flash CT has a temporal resolution of just 75ms, which means that image quality is still high even if a moving object is being scanned. For this reason, the heart does not need to be slowed with beta blockers before a scan to deliver clinical images. This is a quicker process and less disruptive for the patient. The entire chest region can also be imaged in just 0.6 seconds without breath holds from the patient, so images are far clearer and the examination is less stressful.

The installation follows the designation of Barts and The London NHS Trust and Queen Mary, University of London, as a biomedical research unit in advanced cardiac imaging by the NIHR. 

Source: Siemens Healthcare

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