Toshiba And TomTec Deliver New Tools For Cardiac 4D Ultrasound

Main Category: Cardiovascular / Cardiology
Also Included In: MRI / PET / Ultrasound
Article Date: 07 Dec 2007 - 1:00 PDT

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Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation and TomTec Imaging Systems GmbH announced an agreement to deliver new tools for assessing cardiac 4D data and a collaboration to make them more widely available at EuroEcho which is held from December 5th to 8th in Lisbon, Portugal. With the recent announcement of Toshiba's ArtidaTM Cardiac 4D Ultrasound System, a variety of new 4D capabilities were released. TomTec diagnostic workstations will be able to read Artida's data providing increased customer options for image review and a host of new advanced applications.

"We designed Artida to be the first of a new generation of the cardiac 4D ultrasound systems." said Hiroyuki Tsujino, General Manager, Ultrasound Systems Division at Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation. "This is why we developed the smallest and lightest 4D transducers together with the SmartCore technology to generate precise 4D images quickly. To provide a total workflow solution to the customer, TomTec was a natural choice for the image review and analysis. We admire TomTec for its long-standing commitment to innovation in diagnostic ultrasound"

TomTec and Toshiba's newly announced systems are at the forefront of a new push for clinical applications for cardiac 4D ultrasound. This push is making off line review and analysis of 4D data increasingly important. So, it may be surprising to many users that there is no standard for 4D ultrasound data formats. This means that while regular ultrasound images are compatible across a very wide range of review stations, 4D data is not. "Due to its widespread adoption in 4D echo, we view TomTec as the defacto standard for off line 4D solution" said Tsujino.

TomTec will expand it's workstation products compatibility to analyze Artida 2D, 3D and 4D ultrasound data. "Combining Toshiba's ultrasound expertise and our advanced technologies will give our customers access to innovative products." said Bernhard Mumm, President and CTO of TomTec. "By focusing on clinical workflow we can give our customers fast and reproducible results in the field of cardiac 4D quantification for a variety of clinical applications such as global left ventricular (LV) function quantification, regional LV dyssynchrony measurement, mitral valve assessment as a surgical planning tools as well as right ventricular functional assessment."

About Toshiba

With headquarters in Tochigi, Japan, Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation, a group company of Toshiba Corporation, is a global leading provider of diagnostic medical imaging systems and comprehensive medical solutions, such as CT, Cath & EP Labs, X-ray, Ultrasound, Nuclear Medicine, MRI and information systems. Toshiba Corporation is a leader in information and communications systems, electronic components, consumer products, and power systems. Toshiba has approximately 191,000 employees worldwide and annual sales of $60 billion.

Toshiba's newly announced Artida 4D cardiovascular ultrasound system raises the bar on image quality, ease of use and advanced quantification technologies such as the exclusive 3D wall motion tracking based on the novel cubic template matching technology, which is generating a lot of interest in the echocardiography community.

About TomTec

TomTec Imaging Systems GmbH, with headquarter located in Munich - Germany is a worldwide leader in medical image software solutions. The company maintains close working relationships with many leading universities around the world. TomTec holds a leading position in driving innovations in the field of diagnostic ultrasound applications and integrates them for routine clinical use into its medical device manufacturing partner products. Its product line encompasses a wide range of 2D and 3D/4D technology for visualization, quantification and information-processing as well as management of multimodality image data. TomTec's products are applicable to the fields of adult and pediatric cardiology as well as obstetrics and gynecology, radiology, and vascular diagnostics.

http://www.tomtec.de