See how physicians at Hospices Civils de Lyon use spectral-based CT to improve diagnoses

Hospices Civils de Lyon made the switch to spectral-based CT in 2017. The transition from black and white imaging to color imaging proved to be an extremely important factor in diagnosing their patients. According to Professor Phillipe Douek, “It has enabled us to increase iodine sensitivity and thereby reduce doses of contrast agents. We’re also able to examine all patients, even those who have a high BMI and it means we don’t have to change the usual practices employed by technologists or radiologists. And the data acquisition workflow doesn’t change compared with standard acquisition.”

In the case of a patient who was sent to the hospital for a suspected pulmonary embolism, Professor Loic Boussel uses spectral imaging to confirm the problem. In the video, he analyses the acquired images step-by-step with the system’s tools. He can fine-tune to the desired effect. “When the energy levels are high, there’s a lot less contrast in the image as we’re favoring the Compton effect over the photoelectric effect. When we decrease the energy levels, you’ll see that by favoring the photoelectric effect, we’re increasing the iodine inside the vessels, and you’ll notice that we can now see the defect much more clearly in the pulmonary artery.

Once we've done that, we can switch to Z Effective imaging which is particularly effective in detecting of pulmonary embolisms because it enables us to see any perfusion problems.”

Physicians at Hospices Civils de Lyon have found that improvement in diagnostic treatment means they don’t have to perform other tests, which allows them to work faster in treating emergency patients. And their partnership with Philips has proved beneficial. As Professor Douek states, “In 2017, when we liaised with the Philips teams, we already anticipated what would happen next. An 8-cm detector seemed very important to us, particularly for cardiac applications, pulmonary applications and vascular applications. This 8-cm detector, with a fast table speed, will allow us to significantly improve the quality of our images, whether standard or spectral.”