Thales Components and Subsystems (Vélizy, France) had one of the smaller exhibition spaces at ECR 2008 in Vienna but arguably had one of the largest footprints at the show.

“You cannot walk 10 meters in this hall without passing a radiology machine with Thales equipment onboard,” said Béatrice Osio of Thales. For analogue radiology equipment, the image intensifiers from Thales are used by Siemens, Philips, Carestream, Swissray and Primax, “just to name the companies I can see from here,” she said.

In digital radiography at ECR 2008 for the first time, Siemens and Philips were exhibiting commercially available products featuring the wireless flat-panel detectors (wiD) made by Trixcell (Moirans), near Grenoble in southeast France, a joint venture owned 51% by Thales and 24.5% each by Philips and Siemens.

Trixell first showcased what it calls the Pixium Portable at the Radiological Society of North America meeting in December 2006. The detector sends a low-powered wi-fi signal that can provide a preview image in three seconds and a high-resolution display in 10 seconds.

The following year Philips showed the Pixium Portable as a work-in-progress called the Eleva Wireless, integrated into its DigitalDiagnost system and Practix Covenio mobile radiography unit.

Introduced at ECR 2008 in Vienna as go-to-market additions to the product portfolio, Philips has embedded the wiD panel as a fixed feature built into mobile units, while Siemens presented Pixium Portable as a removable detector that can be placed adjacent to an immobilized patient in any position where the emitter can be aligned.

Just as Thales was not exclusive to any manufacturer with image intensifiers, Osio said the company will be offering the wiD Pixium Portable to any interested original equipment manufacturer for future products.

— John Brosky, European Editor