Philips Healthcare and St. Antonius Hosptial Utrecht/Nieuwegein have revealed they have reduced radiation dose in image-guided guided endovascular procedures using ClarityIQ technology.
Initial findings off the first phase of a clinical study investigating if it is possible to significantly reduce the amount of radiation dose exposure during vascular procedures without losing image quality showed x-ray exposure could be reduced by at least 75%. Fifty patients participated in the study, all of whom were receiving treatment for ileac artery stenosis due to atherosclerosis.
The 50 patients underwent angiography of the pelvic vessels. Contrast media was injected into an artery in the groin through a catheter. Images using Philips' ClarityIQ technology were compared with images using a conventional radiation dose. The initial findings showed that the quality of the low-dose images were at least equal to that of conventional dose images.
The interventional radiologists did not need to view the conventional dose images during their treatment of any of the 50 patients. Instead they exclusively viewed the low-dose images, according to Dr. Marco van Strijen, interventional radiologist and head researcher for the study. Van Strijen and colleagues will make final results of the clinical study available during the first half of 2013.
Philips is currently conducting worldwide clinical studies to determine how ClarityIQ technology can reduce the amount of radiation dose required to guide different kinds of minimally invasive treatments. These include treatment of blocked arteries caused by an ischemic stroke, and pulmonary artery disease, as well as image-guided cryoablation of tumors and percutaneous coronary intervention to treat blocked arteries.
St. Antonius Hospital Utrecht/Nieuwegein is the first hospital in the Netherlands to use ClarityIQ technology. Each year approximately 1,200 patients receive endovascular treatment in the hospital's radiology department. Tens of thousands of patients in the Netherlands could benefit from radiation dose reduction during interventional radiology procedures, according to Philips.
