Philips hosts successful Achieva 3.0T System roadshow

Today, South Africa is home to some of the latest high-end magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners available in the world. A number of radiology practices have installed the Achieva 3.0T system from Philips Healthcare, a global leader in medical imaging and patient monitoring systems. The ultra-high-field Achieva 3.0T system enables faster and higher-resolution scans, resulting in superb image quality and more accurate diagnoses. Philips Healthcare recently hosted roadshows around the country focusing on the Achieva 3.0T and invited an independent researcher to verify the benefits of the system.

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Dr Kenneth Coenegrachts, a radiologist at the Saint Jan AV Hospital in Bruges, Belgium, was the roadshow's keynote speaker. Dr Coenegrachts has been performing research and clinical testing on the Achieva 3.0T system for the past 1.5 years, and has been consistently impressed with the results obtained. “The Philips 3.0T Achieva X-series greatly outperforms 1.5T when it comes to high resolution imaging due to its increased signal-to-noise. These benefits not only apply to Neuro MR and MSK MR but also to abdominal and pelvic imaging in general,” explains Dr Coenegrachts. “It also greatly outperforms 1.5T for the imaging of bile ducts and pancreatic ducts. For example, visualisation of subtle pathology and tiny structures (cystic duct) using 3D MRCP sequences allows reconstruction of thin MPR images and MIP images.” Improved abdominal imaging - a challenging area for 3T in the past - now means the Achieva 3.0T system offers a total body MR imaging modality. The Achieva 3.0T can also be utilized to scan faster with higher spatial resolution. The physical advantages which distinguish the Achieva 3.0T from lower field strengths is MR Spectroscopy and BOLD Imaging.

Dr Coenegrachts added that 4D THRIVE was becoming an important functional sequence for the evaluation of therapy (anti-neo-angiogenetic) in liver cancer patients, and was a promising sequence in the performance of perfusion imaging in tumours of the upper abdomen / liver in high temporal and high spatial resolution. This is potentially life-saving as perfusion changes can be detected much earlier than anatomical changes. In addition, the Achieva 3.0T also offers Single Shot Spin Echo (SS SE) EPI, a diffusion-weighted technique used for the early detection of small lesions in the liver, for example, and which is a crucial sequence as these small lesions are not easily detected on any other imaging modality. “SS SE-EPI is an accurate sequence for the detection of small focal liver lesions and is a useful road map for further guidance of the MRI examination. The SS SE EPI sequence is currently being optimized for the 3.0T Achieva and great initial results have already been achieved," Dr Coenegrachts concluded.

Philips Healthcare managing director JJ van Dongen says Philips has a strong history of technological innovation and globally is one of the largest providers of healthcare technologies and related services. “For doctors and patients who understand that the latest technology can improve outcomes, the Achieva 3.0T MR system represents what they have been looking for: the very latest technology that provides exceptional image quality in the most patient-friendly environment.”

One of the beauties of the Achieva 3.0T is its innovative design which is less intimidating and less claustrophobic than other MR machines. While the Achieva 3.0T has the same small dimensions as the Achieva 1.5T or the Achieva XR (the uniquely upgradeable 1.5T to 3.0T system), its wide patient opening, fast scan times, accurate high resolution capacity, specially-designed software which reduces motion and automated scanning significantly reduces the need for rescanning. Philips' advanced technology and design features also result in a more positive scan experience for the patient.

South African radiologists already using the system believe that the Achieva 3.0T in particular is the most flexible system on the market for sequence manipulation, particularly as the user can not only scan completely automated, using the unique SmartExam technology, but also because the user has the flexibility to change every single parameter on a scan sequence level to customize specific protocol. Radiologists using the Achieva 3.0T are unanimous in their conclusion that this Philips scanner routinely shows them structures that previously they would only have seen in exceptional circumstances.