Royal Philips has announced the launch of Philips UniGuide 3D Live Guidance—an imaging solution bringing computed tomography (CT)-derived information into its Azurion imaging platform—in Europe and other CE-marked markets.
For coronary interventions, UniGuide will allow insights derived from a coronary CT angiography (CCTA) scan performed before percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) to be combined with live image guidance through 3D overlay visualisation or synchronised side-by-side display. This will enable physicians to access vessel information and additional CT-derived insights, including plaque characteristics and other disease-related information, during the procedure, the company says in a press release.
“Bringing CT into the cathlab creates a huge opportunity for those patients who have already undergone CT imaging,” said Javier Escaned (Hospital Clínico San Carlos, Madrid, Spain). “Access to the CT angiogram allows us to assess relevant aspects of the vessels we are going to treat, improve procedural planning, and improve the precision of the intervention. We can also review specific aspects of the CT inside the cathlab using the table-side touchscreen (TSM) and synchronise the movement of the 3D CT rendering with the C-arm. Together, these capabilities contribute to better guidance and higher precision of the interventions.”
“We are increasingly able to understand a patient’s anatomy and plan complex procedures well before the patient enters the interventional suite. With UniGuide, we’re putting that knowledge to work during treatment, connecting CT planning with live guidance to help physicians make more informed, patient-specific decisions,” said Darshan Doshi, chief medical officer for Image Guided Therapy Devices at Philips.
