Coronary plaque characterization software from Toshiba and Vital Images
31 October 2006 Minneapolis, USA. Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation
and Vital Images Inc. (NASDAQ:VTAL) have released their jointly developed
SUREPlaque software which is designed to aid in the evaluation,
characterization and quantification of plaque inside the coronary arteries.
Under a partnership agreement, SUREPlaque is available on Vital Images'
Vitrea software, version 3.9, which features significant enhancements to
Vital Images' dedicated cardiac visualization applications.
Although compatible with cardiac images from any CT (computed tomography)
scanner, SUREPlaque was developed and validated exclusively on Toshiba CT
images.
Featuring improved integration between Vitrea and SUREPlaque, the
coronary plaque characterization software is designed to provide colour
coding of vessel walls, noncalcified and calcified plaque for easy reference
and viewing. Enhancements include improved visualization of lesion
boundaries and plaque types with automated measurement and quantification
tools. For Toshiba CT images, there are additional functionalities,
including measuring plaque burden.
In addition to SUREPlaque, Vitrea 3.9 incorporates new tools for probing
coronary arteries, as well as increased capacity for handling large
datasets. "Through our long-term partnership with Vital Images, we have
focused on the development of fast and easy-to-use advanced visualization
tools designed specifically to optimize cardiac imaging for the evaluation
of coronary arteries," said Toshihiro Rifu, general manager, CT Business
Unit, TMSC. "The result of this commitment to improving coronary artery
imaging, SUREPlaque is a natural and complementary part of the workflow that
already exists to evaluate vessel stenosis." "We strongly believe that the
strategic partnership with Toshiba has resulted in the development of one of
the most important new tools in cardiac imaging," said Dr Susan A. Wood,
executive vice president of marketing and clinical development for Vital
Images. "With quantification tools that go well beyond colour coding and
positive remodelling indexing, SUREPlaque not only detects plaque deposits
in the lumen, but also within the vessel wall, making it one of the most
advanced tools to characterize coronary vessels available."
According to Dr. Wood, Vital Images and Toshiba are preparing validation
studies to clinically evaluate SUREPlaque against plaque measurement tools
such as virtual histology and intravascular ultrasound (IVUS).
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