EOS imaging is a low-dose, weight-bearing X-ray technology. It can simultaneously take full-body, frontal and lateral (side view) images of the skeletal system of a patient in a standing or sitting position, using significantly less radiation than traditional X-rays or CT scans.
What is an EOS scan?
The full name of this technology is the EOS dual source upright CT scanner. To break that down:
Dual source – two X-ray beams scan the body at the same time, providing frontal and lateral (sideways) images.
Upright – the patient stands or sits in an upright position. Weight-bearing scans provide useful physiological insight.
CT scanner – like all CT scanners the EOS scanner uses X-Rays to generate cross-sectional images of the body. However, EOS scans can be digitally reconstructed into 3D images.
EOS – a medical imaging system which aims to provide high resolution images whilst limiting the X-ray radiation the patient is exposed to a very low level. It does this by utilising Nobel Prize winning detector technology derived from the CERN project.
Using EOS, two dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) orthopedic images can be produced to assist doctors with the diagnosis and treatment of medical conditions of the spine, hips and knee
The EOS™ X-ray machine, based on a Nobel prize-winning invention in physics in the field of particle detection, is capable of a simultaneous capture of biplanar X-ray images by slot scanning of the whole body in an upright, physiological load-bearing position, using ultra-low radiation doses.
The simultaneous capture of spatially calibrated anterioposterior and lateral images provides a three-dimensional (3D) surface reconstruction of the skeletal system using a special software. Parts of the skeletal system in X-ray images and 3D-reconstructed models appear in true 1:1 scale for size and volume, thus spinal and vertebral parameters, lower limb axis lengths and angles, as well as any relevant clinical parameters in orthopaedic practice can be very precisely measured and calculated. Visualisation of 3D reconstructed models in various views by sterEOS 3D software enables presentation of top view images to help analyse rotational conditions of lower limbs, joints and spine deformities in the horizontal plane, providing revolutionary novel possibilities in orthopaedic surgery, especially in spine surgery.
