Tuesday, April 20, 2010

EDAP Receives European Approval for New Sonolith i-move Lithotripsy Device

LYON, France, Apr 12, 2010 (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX) -- EDAP TMS SA /quotes/comstock/15*!edap/quotes/nls/edap (EDAP 3.15, +0.00, +0.03%) , the global leader in therapeutic ultrasound, announced today the European approval of its new lithotripter, the Sonolith i-move. The EDAP sales team and distributors will begin marketing Sonolith i-move immediately and will officially introduce the product to distributors, partners and visiting urologists at the European Association Urology (EAU) congress, Booth #14, from April 17-19, 2010 in Barcelona, Spain.

Leveraging EDAP's patented electroconductive technology, Sonolith i-move is a compact, stand alone lithotripter with a revolutionary infrared stereo-vision system for real-time, three-dimensional ultrasound localization of urinary stones. With its various modular configurations, Sonolith i-move targets the largest lithotripsy market segment, offering a wide range of treatment procedures for mid-size clinical sites and hospitals. Sonolith i-move will replace Sonolith Praktis, an earlier generation lithotripter, and complements the Company's high-end Sonolith I-sys lithotripter, an integration of x-ray and ultrasound locatization systems.

In addition to the official launch in Europe, EDAP is actively working towards filing for regulatory approval of Sonolith i-move in the U.S. and in Japan.

source: MarketWatch

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Simple ultrasound test improves diagnosis of heart disease

New research shows that doing a simple ultrasound scan of the carotid artery significantly improves the prediction of heart disease, giving doctors a better clue of who is at high risk for a heart attack.

The new study, published in today’s Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC), shows that approximately 23 percent of patients would be reclassified into a different risk group by adding information obtained from the noninvasive test and that risk prediction using this approach was more accurate.

"Today, up to 70 percent of people who have heart attacks are in a low or intermediate risk category for a heart attack when their risk is estimated using traditional risk prediction models. That’s not very predictive, and we need to do better," said Dr. Christie Ballantyne, director of the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at the Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and last author on the study. "Our research shows that a noninvasive ultrasound can give us a more complete snapshot of our patients’ risk, so we can do a better job determining if they’ll have a heart attack."

This is significant because patients who are at higher risk could be treated more aggressively to prevent heart disease.

source: Houston Mehtodist Hospital

Monday, April 5, 2010

Groundbreaking Whole Breast, Warm Bath Ultrasound Technology Is Producing Promising Results

SALT LAKE CITY, March 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- TechniScan, Inc.'s (OTC Bulletin Board: TSNI) unique whole breast ultrasound technology, which provides a comfortable, radiation-free method for assessment of breast lesions was part of a scientific presentation at the National Consortium of Breast Centers (NCBC) conference in Las Vegas last week.

Yuri Parisky, radiologist, vice president and trustee of the NCBC organization and consultant to TechniScan, Inc. participated in the Orange County, CA research study that was presented at the conference. The objective of the study was to determine the usability of the new Warm Bath Ultrasound (TM) technology in a standard breast diagnostic practice. The study found that the groundbreaking technology used in TechniScan's Warm Bath Ultrasound (WBU) produced promising results and indicated that it may have a future role in the evaluation of breast lesions.

"Ultrasound technology is playing a larger role in breast diagnostics because it images cysts, fibroadenomas and cancers differently than mammography. Ultrasound is much better at seeing through dense breasts and finding cancers when they are smaller," said Parisky. "The emergence of whole breast ultrasound technology and specifically the WBU system is providing us with 3-D images of the entire breast, and will hopefully become a standard imaging modality in the next few years."

TechniScan's Warm Bath Ultrasound system is designed to capture three-dimensional images of the breast as a woman lies prone on a table and state-of-the art ultrasound technology is used in a warm water tank to capture images of the breast anatomy.

source: PR Newswire