The Food and Drug Administration has cleared the latest CT scanner in Toshiba America Medical System's Aquilion line, Toshiba announced Wednesday.

The Aquilion Prime CT, which received 510 (k) clearance, features dose-reducing technology and a large-aperture gantry to accommodate bigger patients or difficult emergency scans, the company said.

The Prime CT uses so-called double-slice technology, originally deployed in the Aquilion One system, and a reconstruction algorithm to generate 160 slices per gantry rotation, from its 80-row, half-millimeter detectors. The gantry rotates at one-third of a second, Toshiba said.

The unit also boasts a wide, 78-centimeter aperture and a scanning table able to withstand 660 pounds, making it suitable for bariatric cases.

As for dose control, the system comes standard with noise-scrubbing Adaptive Iterative Dose Reduction technology, which lets users take clearer scans at lower doses, and NEMA XR 25 Dose Check Software, which includes dose alert and notification programs.

Toshiba's U.S. medical headquarters is in Tustin, Calif.