New ultrasound technique reported

We have reported earlier about a new echo system by Toshiba. Now Toshiba reports that they have devised a new ultrasound technique for the system, that is designed to enhance diagnosis and treatment of heart failure, through monitoring of ventricular mechanical dyssynchrony:

The new imaging technique will be presented to cardiologists for the first time at the 2005 Annual Scientific Session of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) in Orlando, Fla.
“With the development of Dyssynchrony Imaging, Toshiba is providing cardiologists with a new innovation that expands the quantification capabilities of ultrasound to aid in diagnosing cardiovascular disease,” said Gordon Parhar, director, Ultrasound Business Unit, Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc. “The DI method makes it easier for clinicians to determine the severity of dyssynchrony by having an automated detection of maximum values and a visual display of time to peak for each region. DI also will be a valuable tool in assessing patients for cardiac resynchronization therapy, providing clinicians with a pathway treatment from pre-implant to post implantation of the pacemaker.”
“The Aplio’s Dyssynchrony Imaging is a new method to quantify radial mechanical dyssynchrony in heart failure patients and can assess improvements after cardiac resynchronization associated with the acute hemodynamic response,” said John Gorcsan III, M.D., director, Echocardiography Laboratories, Professor of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Gorcsan is the primary investigator in the U.S. for Toshiba’s Dyssynchrony Imaging.
The Aplio CV’s new DI technique aids cardiologists in the quantification of left ventricular mechanical dyssynchrony by providing a color-coded display that demonstrates the timing of events within the myocardium of the heart. Early mechanical events are green and severely delayed events are displayed red, allowing clinicians to quickly identify the presence and severity of the patient’s dyssynchronous events.
In addition, with the use of Toshiba’s angle corrected technology, cardiologists also have the ability to evaluate the synchronicity not only longitudinally but can use the short axis view to obtain radial information.

More at Toshiba…