Optoacoustic imaging developer Seno Medical Instruments has enrolled the first 100 patients in a study of its Imagio imaging system.
The company believes Imagio may help women with benign breast masses avoid negative, invasive biopsies. It combines traditional ultrasound with an imaging technology called optoacoustics: The optoacoustic images provide a blood map in and around suspicious breast masses, without the use of ionizing radiation or injectable contrast agents, Seno said.
Malignant tumors grow relatively quickly and require significant amounts of blood and oxygen, so a network of blood vessels grows around the masses. Imagio provides images of these networks and a map of oxygen-rich or oxygen-deprived blood. Images depicting significant vascular structures and low oxygen levels are likely to indicate cancer, according to the company.
The Imagio pivotal study will include 16 hospitals and imaging centers throughout the U.S.
