News | Press Releases

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July 13, 2009

PRECISION IMAGING ULTRASOUND SOFTWARE FOR TOSHIBA’S APLIO XG PROVIDES UNPRECEDENTED IMAGE CLARITY AND RESOLUTION

New Technology Improves Diagnostic Confidence and Patient Care Through Enhanced Structure Definition and Reduced Noise

TUSTIN, Calif., July 13, 2009 — To help leading healthcare institutions increase productivity while improving patient care in diagnostic imaging, Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc., has introduced Precision Imaging technology available on the Aplio™ XG ultrasound system. Precision Imaging technology acquires ultrasound images of unprecedented clarity and resolution, enabling users to see more clinical detail than ever before.

Precision Imaging technology increases productivity and diagnostic confidence by providing more detailed ultrasound images. As a multi-resolution signal processing technology, it not only evaluates images line-by-line, but also includes information from adjacent lines to enhance the amount of information obtained. Traditional ultrasound systems acquire images line-by-line only and do not consider information from adjacent lines. As a Toshiba-exclusive software, Precision Imaging’s ability to capture information from multiple lines improves the definition of the structure, provides more detail and minimizes noise and clutter. This approach enables clinicians to determine if the signal is part of a structure or an anomaly from one line.

“Precision Imaging software shows greater definition of structures and reduces noise to produce high quality ultrasound images,” explained Dr. Edward G. Grant, M.D., professor and chairman of radiology, USC Medical School, who evaluated the new technology throughout the past two months. “Compared to other ultrasound imaging technologies, Precision Imaging shows better contrast and delineation of lesions, vessels and other objects. It enhances our capability to evaluate difficult to image areas and improves diagnoses.”

Precision Imaging is beneficial for head-to-toe scanning. It improves the ability to show subtle tissue differences and image small structures better than conventional imaging. It clearly shows contrast boundaries between tissue and lesions, visualizes vessel walls, and enhances true color borders in difficult to image areas. It is useful for imaging breast lesions, superficial regions, small parts, the abdomen, spleen, liver and thyroid.

“Toshiba is committed to developing imaging technology that not only improves patient care and safety, but also enhances workflow and productivity,” said Girish Hagan, vice president, Marketing, Toshiba. “Precision Imaging does just that. It provides unprecedented ultrasound image clarity and resolution, which enables our customers to view more clinical detail using a single imaging technique, faster and better than before.”

Precision Imaging is available on the Toshiba Aplio XG. The first deliveries to customers are scheduled for July 2009, with product demonstrations available now.

About Toshiba’s Aplio XG

Offering the latest advancements in diagnostic performance and operator comfort, the next generation Aplio XG ultrasound system provides several enhancements that improve productivity, increase diagnostic confidence, facilitate connectivity and enhance ergonomics. Upgrade enhancements include new 4D technology, which allows users to acquire volume data sets for subsequent, off-line review. The Aplio XG’s 3D multi-slice view delivers sequential imaging with a presentation format similar to CT and MR. Additionally, slice thickness and the number of images displayed can be selected by the user. A new ergo-optimized control panel and 19″ LCD also have been added to increase user comfort. The Aplio XG also is IHE compliant for improved connectivity and workflow.

About Toshiba

With headquarters in Tustin, Calif., Toshiba America Medical Systems markets, sells, distributes and services diagnostic imaging systems, and coordinates clinical diagnostic imaging research for all modalities in the United States. Toshiba Medical Systems Corp., an independent group company of Toshiba Corp., is a global leading provider of diagnostic medical imaging systems and comprehensive medical solutions, such as CT, Cath & EP Labs, X-ray, Ultrasound, MRI and information systems. Toshiba Corp. is a leader in information and communications systems, electronic components, consumer products, and power systems. Toshiba has approximately 198,000 employees worldwide and annual sales of $77 billion. For more information, visit www.medical.toshiba.com.