How Dual Source CT Becoming Promising New Imaging Method

Dual source CT (or DSCT) is a yet another new innovation in the CT industry, but instead of making it more difficult to simulate the X-Rays emitted from the Dual X-Ray tubes, what are the advantages that are provided in such system and is it a really new innovation or just a flashy name that would boost sales and spice up marketing campaigns?

As the name suggests, a Dual-source CT scanner has Dual X-ray tubes and thus 2 receivers, note that there are different concepts of dual-source CT scanners, but in this article, we are only focusing on this type of dual-source CT scanners.

There is space for using the Dual-source CT in two main operation modes, the first mode is to have the 2 X-ray sources working in the same dose called the "Dual Source Scanning", the other mode is to have the Dual Source CT to work in two different doses called the "Dual Energy Scanning".

Advantage of Dual Source over Single Source CT

One of the best features of a Dual Source CT is that the dose is less than that of single dose CT, this is due to two main things the less time of exposure and the smart exposure technologies that are used to reduce the dose to be less than that of single dose CT.

Dual Source Scanning

This mode allows for CT imaging to require half the time required thus allowing the ability to apply a full body scan in a very fast scan, but this is not the only advantage, another advantage is that it allows the CT to scan obese patients with far less dose needed in a single dose CT.

Moreover, there is room for low dose cardiac imaging that is not limited to certain cases as before and there is no need to reduce patient's heart rate. This aids in cardiac diagnostics and treatment.

In addition, trauma scanning and angiography are possible with the Dual Source Scanning.  

Dual Energy Scanning   

When using this function, the ability to differentiate between calcification and contrast material like Iodine. Moreover, it allows an automatic bone removal when doing angiographies. There is also the ability to do cardiac and lung perfusion, functional parameter maps.

A case study was applied for the evaluation of DSCT in the diagnosis of coronary artery stenosis that showed promising results of DSCT. In addition to this, there are many case studies that were done by Siemens showing the various capabilities of a DSCT.