Advances in pre-hospital care - operational experiences from the Melbourne mobile stroke unit

Zhao, Henry; Campbell, Bruce C.V.; Foster, Shane; Stephenson, Michael; Coote, Skye; Langenberg, Francesca; Easton, Damien; Donnan, Geoffrey A.; Davis, Stephen M.

doi:10.20517/2574-1209.2020.77

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…For xCAT, there is no translation involved since it uses cone beam technology which performs a volumetric scan through a single gantry rotation [30]. To ensure the CT scanner's travel is unidirectional and precise, multiple MSU programs were seen installing linear guides to assist the CT scanner during translation [14,31]. Therefore, for CT scanners where the entire structure is designed to travel during scanning, additional mechanical guides must be designed in addition to the support structure, while for CT scanners where only part of the gantry translates, a simple fixed support structure is adequate.…”

Section: Actuation Mechanism Of the Mobile Head Ct Scannermentioning

confidence: 99%

Bringing CT Scanners to the Skies: Design of a CT Scanner for an Air Mobile Stroke Unit

et al. 2022

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Stroke is the second most common cause of death and remains a persistent health challenge globally. Due to its highly time-sensitive nature, earlier stroke treatments should be enforced for improved patient outcome. The mobile stroke unit (MSU) was conceptualized and implemented to deliver the diagnosis and treatment to a stroke patient in the ultra-early time window (<1 h) in the pre-hospital setting and has shown to be clinically effective. However, due to geographical challenges, most rural communities are still unable to receive timely stroke intervention, as access to specialized stroke facilities for optimal stroke treatment poses a challenge. Therefore, the aircraft counterpart (Air-MSU) of the conventional road MSU offers a plausible solution to this shortcoming by expanding the catchment area for regional locations in Australia. The implementation of Air-MSU is currently hindered by several technical limitations, where current commercially available CT scanners are still oversized and too heavy to be integrated into a conventional helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS). In collaboration with the Australian Stroke Alliance and Melbourne Brain Centre, this article aims to explore the possibilities and methodologies in reducing the weight and, effectively, the size of an existing CT scanner, such that it can be retrofitted into the proposed search and rescue helicopter—Agusta Westland AW189. The result will be Australia’s first-ever customized CT scanner structure designed to fit in a search-and-rescue helicopter used for Air-MSU.

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Section: Actuation Mechanism Of the Mobile Head Ct Scannermentioning

confidence: 99%