Program Remotely Monitors CT Tube Performance

May 25, 2010 - Whether detecting cancer, heart or brain imaging, renal exams or bone scans, physicians must be able to rely on their positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) or single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT/CT) scanners.

Any system downtime costs molecular imaging (MI) customers significantly, as an expensive radiopharmaceutical dose must be ordered specifically for each patient in advance of the examination. In order to help assure the highest availability of the scanners, Siemens Healthcare has extended its Guardian Program to a variety of MI systems. Proactive online monitoring in real-time now is available for the MI system families Biograph mCT, Biograph TruePoint, Symbia S and Symbia T.

With the Guardian Program, more than 10 sensors proactively monitor the tube functions via real-time data flow with Siemens Remote Service (SRS).Tube exchanges can be scheduled in advance and unplanned downtime can be avoided. Additionally, TubeGuard, designed for the molecular imaging system Biograph mCT, is an option of the Guardian Program and is engineered to predict the majority of all potential CT tube failures.

For more information: www.medical.siemens.com