i have listed...
portable ct scanners (cone-beam or non cone beam).
c-arms modified to be ct-like.
c-arms modified to give something in 3d (post processed only, not realtime).
then on the medtronic o-arm (again post processed only, not realtime).
all these things above are currently out there...
now for example, i don't feel that the DViS will do CTA (aka CT angiography), and don't feel it was ever intended to go down that path...
the DViS is unique yet substantially equivalent, and my thoughts are that the realtime 3d application will be of value to the big players... i have posted links to articles on trends in CT 3d post processed images...the article shows clear evidence of that... which i only allude to because the trending aspect in imaging is toward 3d...even post processed reconstructed MR images is happening... however, 3d fluoro (fluoro = realtime) is owned by IMGG.
seems to me to be clear cut. mathematically i can't think of any other way to obtain 3d realtime fluoro without an o-arm (of the gantry type -- the medtronic o-arm is my opinion is not a true gantry it just isn't)... it has to do with the Radon Transform (it is a mathematical tranform of the Fourier type)... btw, Radon is not the radioactive element, it is someone's name. the Radon Transform is the mathematics behind computed tomograhy, and for that matter MRI... i.e., the things that do sectional imaging...
for mri the gantry is termed the bore.
something interesting...on a different note...at the conference i was at over last weekend... steps are progressing to make MRI-guided interventional procedures more commonplace for some procedures...
