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November 28, 2010

TOSHIBA’S CT RADIATION DOSE REDUCTION TECHNOLOGIES HELP PHYSICIANS PROVIDE SAFER EXAMS FOR PATIENTS

Technologies Showcased at RSNA Extend the Ability of Toshiba CT Systems to Lower Radiation Dose

CHICAGO, Nov. 28, 2010 – Reducing radiation dose is a high priority for medical imaging manufacturers and healthcare facilities. Expanding its dedication to reducing CT radiation dose while maintaining diagnostic confidence, Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc. is expanding its suite of low dose CT technologies. Toshiba will showcase dose reduction technologies, such as Target CTA and Adaptive Iterative Dose Reduction (AIDR) at this year’s Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) annual meeting, held in Chicago, Nov. 28 – Dec. 3, 2010 (Booth #3435, South Hall).

Target CTA is a cardiac protocol for the Aquilion^® ONE that is designed for patients including pediatrics. Since the Aquilion ONE can image the entire heart in one rotation, using the Target CTA protocol allows for more accurate targeting of the heart and minimizes padding of the scan range. Target CTA can be most helpful to limit radiation dose during gated cardiac studies.

Adaptive Iterative Dose Reduction is software that iterates noise out of the image to increase image quality and lower radiation dose. The software intuitively improves the image by removing noise until the optimal image is produced. AIDR will come standard on the Aquilion^® Premium edition and Aquilion ONE.

“Target CTA and AIDR represent Toshiba’s continued commitment to providing patients with safer CT exams without sacrificing the diagnostic confidence physicians require,” said Joseph Cooper, director, CT Business Unit, Toshiba. “These technologies expand the full suite of dose reduction technologies as Toshiba continues to innovate new ways to provide safer CT exams to patients.”

Toshiba puts patient safety at the forefront of all it does and is committed to making medical imaging as fast, accurate and safe as possible. Target CTA and AIDR join a full lineup of Toshiba dose reduction technologies, including ^SUREExposure^TM, ^SUREExposure Pediatric, QDS and Boost3D^®.

• ^SUREExposure adjusts the dose levels each patient receives based on their size. This enables physicians to acquire high-quality images with the least possible amount of radiation.

• ^SUREExposure Pediatric brings the ^SUREExposure benefits to pediatric patients. Simply by entering the patient’s age or weight, ^SUREExposure Pediatric automatically makes the adjustments needed to acquire the quality images physicians need to make accurate diagnoses with the least radiation possible.

• QDS and Boost3D technologies improve image noise characteristics without increasing dose to the patient. These algorithms can be used to improve image quality while decreasing radiation dose. Applying QDS and Boost3D can achieve dose savings of up to 50 percent while preserving reconstruction speed.

For facilities conducting more niche exams, Toshiba offers additional dose reduction software packages, including Variable Helical Pitch and ^SURECardio^TM Prospective. These technologies come standard on the Aquilion ONE and can be added to the Aquilion 32, Aquilion 64, and Aquilion Premium CT systems.

• ^SURECardio Prospective combines the reliability and flexibility of helical cardiac acquisitions with the tremendous dose savings of prospective ECG gating. This novel approach produces high-quality diagnostic studies for all heart rates and can reduce radiation dose by up to 80 percent.

• Variable Helical Pitch (vHP) brings flexibility to scanning combination studies while significantly lowering dose and enhancing workflow. Furthermore, by making better use of the injected contrast material, vHP is less expensive for the hospital or imaging center and, more importantly, safer for the patient. vHP can achieve a reduction of up to 55 percent in radiation dose over the use of a single gated pitch setting.

• Active Collimation, a hardware feature standard on the Aquilion Premium and Aquilion ONE, is used to minimize the effects of helical over-ranging and reduce patient exposure by blocking out excess exposure at the beginning and end of a helical exam.

About Toshiba’s Aquilion CT Product Line Recognition

The Aquilion CT product line has received numerous accolades including the number one ranking in CT from MD Buyline since 2002 (eight consecutive years). The Aquilion 64 line has also been named Best in KLAS in 2006 and 2007 in CT; Best in KLAS in 2008, 2009 and 2010 for 64-detector row and above; and Frost & Sullivan’s “Healthcare Innovation Award in Cardiovascular Imaging” in 2008. (For more information about KLAS, visit www.KLASresearch.com.) Most recently, Toshiba’s service was ranked number one in 26 out of 40 attributes in the IMV, Ltd. ServiceTrak™ Imaging 2010 report on CT system service.

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 worldwide leader in technology, electronic and electrical products, digital consumer products, electronic devices and components, power systems, industrial and social infrastructure systems and home appliances. Toshiba was founded in 1875 and today operates a global network of more than 742 companies with more than 204,000 employees worldwide and annual sales surpassing $68 billion. For more information, visit Toshiba’s website at www.medical.toshiba.com.