Portable Head CT Scanner
Portable CT is the preferred diagnostic toolkit for head and brain imaging which is faster and efficient compared to other modalities like MRI. It is beneficial from both economical and clinical point of view. Doctors can obviate the risks associated with intrahospital transport in ICU, NICU, neurointervention suites, intraoperative procedures (decreasing postoperative morbidity), and emergency medicine department enabling high patient throughput, ease of use, feasibility, and cost-effectiveness. A paradigm shift in utilization of portable CT was its installation in ambulances (stroke ambulances) that can be taken to small towns in the remotest part of the globe for real-time imaging, prehospital stroke care, and triage of ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke patients. Portable CT can be used in acute stroke, supratentorial, subcortical astrocytomas, EDH, having spinal instrumentation placed, cervical spinal tumor resection, head injury requiring frequent CT, high cervical trauma, bedside monitoring of cerebral blood flow, patients who are hemodynamically unstable, on endotracheal tube, ventilator, sedation, and ionotropic support.
Evolution of CT from first generation to advancements like CBCT, MDCT, higher slice system, new detector technology, iterative reconstruction, spectral CT imaging, data integration (Big Data), integrating information across different diagnostic tools, stereolithography, dual source scanner, dual energy, DICOM structured reporting has led newer-generation portable CT with improved application, precision, accuracy, compactness, lightweight feature, low-dose requirement, improved spatial resolution image quality and speed, reduced artifact and noise, and consumption of far less power. Robustness has enabled portable CT to become a mainstream in medical care. Cost profile of a portable CT is superior to that of a fixed CT scanner.
The average time taken to do a CT scan (from the time of request to transmission into PACS) is 12.6 min, which makes it a true bedside tool, which can dramatically improve decision-making and patient care. Clinicians are inclined toward analytics solutions – artificial intelligence which will help deliver more value by improving clinical pathways to personalized medicine. Medical cloud will offer reliability, security, and accessibility on the clinical front. These days medical device companies are focusing on high-quality, commercially viable, accessible, and affordable solutions which bring large-scale sustainable, socio-economic and environment impacting technologies.
