GE Medical Systems released upgrades to its CardIQ Analysis, CardIQ Function, and SmartScore CT software at this week's American Heart Association meeting in Chicago.
CardIQ Analysis II allows clinicians to visualize the heart and coronary vessels, improving their ability to determine the location of arterial plaque. The feature also provides assistance in cardiac management, GE said. Physicians can view, read, and examine volumetric cardiac data from an infinite number of angles in less than five minutes, and the software also allows for measuring arterial plaque composition, according to the Waukesha, WI-based vendor.
GE has also upgraded CardIQ Function to allow radiologists and cardiologists to better analyze the heart muscle and determine if it's functioning properly. Both left and right cardiac ventricular functions can be measured, GE said.
Version 3.5 of GE’s SmartScore plaque-assessment software adds the ability to follow progression and regression of calcified plaque.
In catheterization lab developments, GE has debuted InnovaSpin, a 2-D cardiac spin technology for use on its Innova 2000 digital flat-panel cath lab offering. GE said that Innova Spin offers dose reduction and time savings; a typical diagnostic cardiac exam can now be completed with two left coronary angiography scans and one coronary spin scan, according to the vendor.
GE also said it would sponsor a multicenter study to investigate strain rate imaging (SRI) in echocardiography. SRI measures the rate of deformation in tissue via a method based on the Doppler technique.
The studies will compile data on normal values of SRI for different patient populations based on age, race, gender, weight, pathology, and other parameters, GE said. Other studies will investigate SRI's utility to evaluate potential success of treatment options for asynchrony. Preliminary results will be presented at the 2003 American College of Cardiology meeting.
By AuntMinnie.com staff writersNovember 19, 2002
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