Medical Applications

Almost every modality used in today's modern medical facilities - including MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), CT (computed tomography), US (ultrasound), and DR (digital radiology) - has begun to incorporate some form of real-time digital imaging.

In today's systems, most of the real-time functionality is achieved using point-to-point connections between a vision sensor in the modality and an image capture board in a PC, usually using specialized fiber cabling. The images often need to be viewed on more than one display in the operating room, or by staff in a control room, observation room, or training area. This is accomplished by configuring additional point-to-point connections using PCs, graphic extension boards, display controllers, and other pieces of specialized hardware.

These point-to-point connections are not only costly, they are complex, difficult to manage, and expensive to scale. Moreover, as sensors evolve to higher resolutions and faster frame rates, it will be increasingly difficult for these links to deliver the throughput needed for real-time image delivery.

Pleora's high-throughput networked video connectivity solutions leverage the flexible and scalable Ethernet platform and the GigE Vision^® standard to drive down costs and improve clinical workflow. They bring together all the image sensors, PCs, processing units, and displays into a common and seamless framework that complements PACS (picture archiving and communication systems) systems based on the DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) standard.

By having all the elements connected to a network and speaking the same language, multiple streams of video from different types of image sensors can be transmitted easily to any combination of PCs, processing units, and displays. This approach simplifies the implementation of advanced multi-stream applications, and substantially reduces the need for costly specialized equipment and custom cabling.

Imaging data from the C-arm is converted to IP packets for reliable, real-time transport over a standard GigE network. The video processing unit in the control room corrects the images and streams them back over the network to displays in the operating room and other destinations, all with low, consistent latency.