Health and Medical News

GE Healthcare Launches Diagnostic Advancements On Premier Women's Health Ultrasound System At AIUM 2

Health and Medical News - Women's Health & Gynecology
Friday, 14 March 2008
GE Healthcare launched enhancements to its premier ultrasound system for obstetrics and gynecology, the Voluson E8 Breakthrough 2008, at the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM) Annual Meeting, March 12-15 in San Diego. GE's new proprietary software program, Sonography-based Automated Volume Count (SonoAVC), delivers an effective way of calculating the number and volume of ovarian follicles. This is an primary step in assisted reproductive medicine. The Voluson E8 Breakthrough 2008 also features enhanced probe imaging capabilities, which enable clinicians to see more anatomical detail. GE, the global leader in ultrasound, also showcased its leading console and compact LOGIQ systems to enhance patient care in radiology and emergency medicine. The dilemma of infertility affects approximately 80 million people globally; in the U.S., approximately 6.1 million couples have problem conceiving, about 10-15 percent of the U.S. population, according to the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the National Women's Health Resource Center (NWHRC). In assisted reproductive medicine, ultrasound is part of baseline evaluation with the patient. Ultrasound imaging can involve an assessment of the anatomy like the uterus, fallopian tubes, ovaries and endometrium. Ultrasound can help in surgery planning, as well as helping to detect abnormalities and cysts. GE's new special software, SonoAVC, automatically measures and calculates the number and volume of hypoechoic structures, like ovarian follicles, in a volume sweep. This is a critical diagnostic step in assisted reproductive medicine, thanks to each fluid-filled follicle contains hormone producing cells and a maturing ovum (egg). Bringing automation to the exam can significantly decrease a physician or clinician's time for follicular assessment and reporting, as much as 7.6 minutes per patient. SonoAVC's automation and standardization of the exam increases efficiency and consistency between physicians across clinics, and patient to patient. SonoAVC also generates immediate results a patient can see in an easy-to-view report format. "The capability to automate the follicular assessment using ultrasound enhances the efficiency of follicular volume measurement," said Alfred Z. Abuhamad, M.D., Chairman of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Eastern Virginia Medical School. "Displaying ovarian follicles in a 3-D mode allows for an simple visual depiction of the geometric shape of individual follicles and hence enhances the optimal evaluation of the stimulated ovary. A software system that automates and simplifies follicular assessment has good promise in clinical practice. SonoAVC represents a giant step towards that goal." Voluson E8 Breakthrough 2008 highlights for Obstetrics and Gynecology GE also introduced new abdominal and transvaginal transducers with an extended 195-degree field of view, compared to the preceding 120-degree field of view, to help clinicians image more of the reproductive anatomy in a single view. GE's proprietary ultrasound beam-steering technology helps give clinicians a larger field of view to see more in one image. This helps in evaluating anatomy, like the uterus, both ovaries, or abnormalities. In addition, Voluson's new 4D high frequency transvaginal probe can detect anatomical detail before in the first trimester and in gynecological exams. New on the Voluson 730 Expert system is the proprietary software that can automate the acquisition of ultrasound images used by physicians to diagnose fetal heart defects. This software, called Sonography based Volume Computer Aided Diagnosis (SonoVCAD), was first launched on the Voluson E8 in 2006. GE licensed SonoVCAD, patented by Dr. Abuhamad, who developed the automation protocol. Abuhamad's protocol automates the acquisition of images to display the planes that are required for a full ultrasound evaluation with a four-chamber view of the fetal heart. Dr. Abuhamad has built algorithms that permit the other planes to be generated from that four-chamber view. Those views permit physicians to identify the type and severity of fetal heart defects. LOGIQ Care Area Series for Radiology The LOGIQ Care Area Series ultrasound systems, introduced at RSNA 2007, are customized to radiology specialty areas like pediatric radiology, vascular laboratories and breast imaging. Built on the multi-specialty LOGIQ platform, the Care Area Series provides specialty-specific tools for enhanced care areas: ventricular volume measurements of hydrocephalus in the newborn; real-time ultrasound imaging of the hemodynamics of a pseudoaneurysm in the elderly; and women undergoing ultrasound imaging of breast lesions in the coronal plane are all examples of this Care Area focus. GE designed the new care area systems with 2 objectives in mind: wonderfull imaging performance optimized for each clinical area, and optimal clinical workflow designed to enhance healthcare quality and efficiency. LOGIQ continues to be based on GE's raw data approach to ultrasound imaging. Rather than storing ultrasound images as video pixels, the data is stored as digitized ultrasound waveforms. GE's experience has been that this architecture gives greatly high ultrasound fidelity. In the LOGIQ Care Area Series systems, this raw data can be captured in 3 dimensions in near real-time. This makes ultrasound imaging much like CT or MR imaging in that clinicians, regardless of care area, can view, reprocess, re-slice, and review images even after the patient has left the building. LOGIQ e Breakthrough 2008 Emergency Medicine Edition This compact system is designed with devoted software specifically for unique clinical requires, and automatic image optimization with one-button operation. The report package can automatically send clinical images to a network folder where a PDF can be picked up by the patient's electronic medical record (EMR), a key need in emergency medicine. This laptop-style system can be moved speedily from room to room for imaging traumatic injuries, interior bleeding, pregnancy related complaints, soft tissue infections, and certain cardiac conditions. "Each field of medicine uses ultrasound in a unique way. GE offers a broad range of ultrasound systems that cater to the unique requires of different medical practitioners," said Omar Ishrak, CEO and president of GE Healthcare's Clinical Systems business unit. "We are helping enhance clinicians' diagnostic capabilities and their care for patients across women's healthcare, radiology and emergency medicine. In each field, GE delivers the premium image quality, workflow efficiencies and portability with compact systems that are suited for each unique user." About GE Healthcare GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our expertise in medical imaging and info technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, performance improvement, drug discovery, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies is helping clinicians around the world re-imagine new ways to predict, diagnose, inform, treat and monitor disease, so patients can live their lives to the fullest. GE Healthcare's broad range of products and services enable healthcare providers to better diagnose and treat cancer, heart disease, neurological diseases and other conditions before. Our vision for the future is to enable a new "early health" model of care focused on before diagnosis, pre-symptomatic disease detection and disease prevention. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a $17 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 46,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. GE Healthcare

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