First Vantage Orian 1.5T / Encore Upgrade Installed in Europe

In November 2019, the Encore Upgrade of the Vantage Titan to Vantage Orian 1.5T started at Helsingin Magneettikuvaus, in Helsinki, Finland. Helsingin Magneettikuvaus is a 9 years old company, where they had the so called first generation Vantage Titan. This installation is the first Encore Upgrade in Europe. The Encore Upgrade enables users of Canon Medical’s EXCELART Vantage, EXCELART Vantage Atlas and Vantage Titan MR systems to convert their system to the new Vantage Orian 1.5T system, with lower costs and minimal construction work compared to purchasing a new system.
With the Encore Upgrade, the customers now have access to the Vantage Orian 1.5T hardware and digital software platform that can help improve workflow and deliver clinical confidence. Depending on the current platform, new options become available like contrast-free MR angiography, ultrashort echo time (UTE) imaging and Water Fat Separation (WFS), a technique that provides homogenous fat suppression while acquiring four different tissue contrasts in one scan.
After the installation, Jari Erkkila, Clinical application specialist at Tromp Medical (official distributor of Canon Medical in Finland), gave a training to explain about the new features that are now available. As the site had much experience working on the Vantage Titan, it was rather straightforward to rebuild new imaging protocols and learn to use Vantage Orian 1.5T in a smooth and optimal fashion. With the upgrade, they now have the option for new coils like the 16ch Flex SPEEDER coils and the dedicated Knee/Foot SPEEDER coil.

1. Finger scanned with 16ch Flex SPEEDER coil
- Sagital PD with FatSat
- Resolution: 0.6 x 0.6 mm
- Slice Thickness: 2.5 mm

2. Shoulder scanned with Shoulder SPEEDER Coil
- Axial PD with FatSat
- Resolution: 0.6 x 0.6 mm
- Slice thickness: 3 mm

Jukka Mäntylä (Radiographer), Martti Kuusisto (Radiographer), Tommi Jauhiainen (Radiologist).
Tommi Jauhiainen, owner and chief radiologist at Helsingin Magneettikuvaus, closely followed the initializing phase and is excited about new methods like WFS and 3D mVox imaging, but especially he likes the flexibility in the scan environment.

He has achieved good understanding of Canon Medical MRI functions and he often tunes the protocols to get full potential out from the system. So the protocols are well validated.
Jukka Mäntylä (Radiographer), Martti Kuusisto (Radiographer), Tommi Jauhiainen (Radiologist).
“Thanks to new possibilities in scan environment and new coils the general image quality is better than before using approximately the same scan time. While overall image quality is excellent, the Knee/Foot SPEEDER coil gave us best improvement in image quality compared to the old system. Foot, ankle and knee images are excellent”, said Tommi Jauhiainen. With the new software we were also able to start abdominal scans. Water Fat Separation (Dixon, WFS) helps when fat saturation is for some reason difficult”, he concluded.

3. Lumbar Spine
- Sagital T2
- Resolution: 1.0 x 1.0 mm
- Slice Thickness: 3.5 mm

4. Cervical Spine
- Sagital T2
- Resolution: 0.9 x 0.9 mm
- Slice Thickness: 3.0 mm

Download PDF

This article is a reprint from the international VISIONS magazine, published by Canon Medical Systems Europe B.V.

Contact Us