Voxar colonography software selected for large UK clinical trial

Voxar's CT colonography software, Voxar Colonscreen, has been chosen by the Special Interest Group in Gastrointestinal and Abdominal Radiology (SIGGAR1) for a clinical trial sponsored by the National Health Service (NHS) Health Technology Assessment (HTA) program in the UK to interpret virtual colonoscopy studies.

Specifically, Voxar said the SIGGAR1 trial will compare CT colonography with the two established alternatives, barium enema and optical colonoscopy, for diagnosis of colonic cancer in older symptomatic patients. The trial will involve 10 NHS hospitals around the United Kingdom in total, following a pilot study.

The pilot includes: St Mark's Hospital, Harrow; Bradford Royal Infirmary, Bradford; and Hope Hospital, Salford; and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham. The remaining six centers, currently being recruited, will join the trial in September, Voxar said, and 4,320 patients will be involved in the trial ending in April 2006, which will result in clinical guidelines for the use of CT colonography for cancer diagnosis in the UK.

Voxar Colonscreen will be used to identify significant colorectal neoplasia, defined as colorectal cancer or any polyp measuring 1-cm or more in diameter, and any extracolonic abnormalities. Voxar's CT colonography software, which allows radiologists to visualize supine and prone CT DICOM images simultaneously in 2D and 3D modes, automatically generates Windows- and PACS-compatible reports on-the-fly.

Around the web

The nuclear imaging isotope shortage of molybdenum-99 may be over now that the sidelined reactor is restarting. ASNC's president says PET and new SPECT technologies helped cardiac imaging labs better weather the storm.

CMS has more than doubled the CCTA payment rate from $175 to $357.13. The move, expected to have a significant impact on the utilization of cardiac CT, received immediate praise from imaging specialists.

The newly cleared offering, AutoChamber, was designed with opportunistic screening in mind. It can evaluate many different kinds of CT images, including those originally gathered to screen patients for lung cancer. 

Trimed Popup
Trimed Popup