Clear Images Despite a 75% Reduction in Radiation Dose

Minimizing radiation dose without compromising image quality is the Holy Grail of radiology. Now, with the arrival of their new generation of interventional X-ray systems known as AlluraClarity, it looks like Philips Healthcare (Best, The Netherlands) is very close to finding it.

The new system based on Clarity IQ technology dramatically reduces X-ray dose by 73% while retaining image quality equivalent to that obtained with conventional X-rays. This radically reduces staff and patient exposure to radiation allowing longer and more complex procedures to be performed.

“The system provides the same image quality at a fraction of the dose, with a typical dose reduction of 73% in neurological, 50% in cardiac and 83% in peripheral imaging studies,” pointed out Mrs. Ruth Turner, Philips Cardiovascular Product Specialist for the UK and Ireland.

She explained that there was a significant need to minimize exposure through technological breakthrough. “Despite striving to minimize dose as much as possible, a patient’s cumulative dose due to other diagnostic tests like CT scans, other angiographies and angioplasties also needs to be taken into account,” added Mrs. Turner.

Clinical evidence to date is based on neuroimaging together with abdominal and cardiac imaging. Results of a comparison study conducted by Dr. M. Soderman and his colleagues from the interventional neuroradiology department at the Karolinska Institute Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden, compared AlluraClarity and its predecessor, AlluraXper for image quality. Procedures performed on 20 patients comprising aneurysm repair and arteriovenous malformation treatment found that the AlluraClarity images, which is underpinned by ClarityIQ technology, were equal or better than conventional X-rays, and that ClarityIQ technology reduced X-ray dose by 70%-75%.

Dr. Andy Rogers, Head of Radiation Physics at Nottingham University Hospitals (UK), presented information at the UK launch of AlluraClarity at the UKRC, the annual joint radiological congress, held in Manchester (UK), this week.

“I’d like one of these. They have been successfully validated abroad, but I’d like one to use experimentally, to test the claims in the UK,” he remarked in an interview.

Dr. Rogers explained that the powerhouse behind AlluraClarity lay in the use of faster and more numerous processors, which can performing many more calculations, and using more complicated image processing techniques.

In essence, Clarity IQ technology removes the noise that accompanies an image. “With this increased processing power, the new system can actually carry out more vigorous noise reduction without affecting the image. The trick is to remove the noise but not the signal,” reported Dr. Rogers.

Conventional X-rays that use a low dose are associated with a lot of noise and poor quality image, “but AlluraClarity removes this noise whilst keeping the low dose and retaining the image quality too,” pointed out Dr. Rogers.

“Scientists have been trying to achieve this for a long time but Philips have now taken this to a whole new level,” he noted.

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