| Category | Life Sciences and Biotechnology |
| Keywords | Ultra low dose radiation CT scanning, repeat CT scanning |
| Current development stage | For medical device: TRL3 – Hypothesis testing and initial POC is demonstrated in limited number of in-vitro models |
Application
Computer Tomography (CT) studies are pervasive and play a central role in all aspects of patient care, allowing for diagnosis, planning procedures, intra-procedural monitoring, and post-procedural evaluation. The main disadvantage of CT imaging is that it exposes the patient to a substantial amount of ionizing radiation that may be harmful to the patient. This problem is exacerbated for repeat CT scanning, in which a patient is scanned one or more times after a baseline scan has been acquired. Repeat scanning is very common in many clinical situations, e.g. multi-phase scanning, follow-up scanning in oncology, intraoperative monitoring and more. Much research has been recently devoted to developing methods for achieving clinically viable procedures with the lowest possible radiation dose.
Our Innovation
We have developed a unique method for dose optimization in repeat CT scanning. The main advantages of the method are:
- It enables a ten-fold radiation dose reduction with very little image quality loss in the ROI.
- It accounts for patient body motions and organs deformations.
- It can be used offline for diagnosis and online for interventional CT.
Opportunity
This technology is expected to provide a competitive edge to manufacturers of CT scanners and to companies developing ultra-low dose X-ray scanning hardware and software. The new method may directly benefit patients who require multiple scans of the same body region and/or are periodically evaluated with CT scan for cancer development.
