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The i-CAT Imaging System (developed by Imaging Sciences International, Inc.) is a cone beam volumetric tomography and panoramic x-ray machine for dental head and neck applications. It uses an amorphous silicon flat panel image sensor.
Our system arrived at the University of the Pacific Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry on October 10, 2005. Acquisition of patient data began the next day. Don't miss the photos of celebrity patients, plus our first 2D and 3D renderings, near the bottom of this page. You can click any image below to see a larger version.
We gratefully acknowledge the support of Dr. W. Ronald Redmond, whose generous contribution made this day possible.
Before Installation
This is what the room looked like before the arrival of the i-CAT. (The brown chair belongs to the former x-ray setup. It will be removed before installation.) These four photos may provide some sense of the size of the room.
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Looking into the future i-CAT room, with the control vestibule on the right. The imaging area is straight ahead, containing the brown chair.
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Looking slightly to the right, into the control vestibule, where the computer and monitor will go. The future i-CAT imaging area is the space visible just beyond this vestibule.
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After stepping into the future i-CAT imaging room, this is the view looking slightly to the right.
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Inside the future i-CAT imaging room, looking slightly to the left.
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10:00 AM - The Truck Arrives!
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Look, there's the truck...
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Here we are!
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Time to unload.
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11:00-2:00 Installation In Progress
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The partially unpacked sensor and emitter unit, with human installer (Edgar Sanchez from Imaging Sciences is on the left).
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Here's the backplane in position.
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Another view of the backplane.
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Pacific's Building Operations staff pulls cable to the control location.
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In the control vestibule: cables, cables, cables.
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Edgar attaches the unit containing the x-ray emitter and the flat-panel sensor.
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The patient chair is unpacked, waiting to be installed.
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3:00 - Nearly Finished
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Everything in its place.
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View of the flat-panel sensor. (The white cylinder in the center is an imaging phantom.)
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View of the x-ray emitter. (Imaging phantom on the right.)
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Power up!
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Software installed, acquiring test image of the phantom.
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A view of the phantom, imaged in OsiriX using DICOM output.
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October 11: Celebrity Patient #1
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Dr. Schiff (Director of Radiology) makes sure that Dr. Boyd (Orthodontics Department Chair) doesn't escape. Note the chin holder that probably won't be used with less flight-risky ortho patients.
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Reconstructing Dr. Boyd.
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This is the first i-CAT report, created from Dr. Boyd's scan by Dr. Schiff. (Requires Adobe Reader for viewing the full-size report.)
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OsiriX soft tissue rendering of Dr. Boyd's i-CAT data (exported as DICOM files), including an effective menton-obscuring device.
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OsiriX hard tissue rendering of Dr. Boyd's i-CAT data. All that gold!
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A view of Dr. Boyd's mandibular nerve canal as rendered with OsiriX's 2D curved plane tool.
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October 11: Celebrity Patient #2
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Dr. Ahlstrom demonstrates proper headband restraint.
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New Images: Quicktime VR
These are large files, so please be patient if you can't start dragging the models around right away. We recommend downloading each file to your hard drive first, then opening them with the Quicktime Player (a free download for Windows or Macintosh). If you have a fast internet connection and enough RAM, you can probably view these directly in your web browser. Experiment!
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Here's a Quicktime VR ("Virtual Reality") rendering of the hard tissue for one of our first patients, created with OsiriX. The i-CAT's "extended height" feature was used to acquire a large anterior portion of the patient's head.
Click (or right-click) the thumbnail to download the 33.4MB file; open it with the Quicktime Player (a free download for Windows or Macintosh) to rotate and zoom the model.
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Here's another Quicktime VR rendering of the same patient, this time with some judicious lighting and shading applied - just in time for Hallowe'en. Does this help to define the hard tissue in this voltex image?
We'll continue to explore techniques like this to get the best information from each acquisition.
As with the previous file (above), click (or right click) the thumbnail to download the file - then open it with the Quicktime Player. Compare the two approaches to see how they might affect your interpretation.
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