Philips acquires ATL, while Siemens and Toshiba agree to
team up for product development

3-D display: the big news for ultrasound products

But there is more happening in ultrasound than just this deal. Earlier this year, Siemens and Toshiba struck an agreement to team up in the development of critical components for use in each other's products. In the development pipeline is an advanced beamformer designed to work with each company's proprietary technology.

Another example of consolidation is the deal between Medison and ATL. The Korean-based company has turned over its black-and-white scanner for relabeling as the Ultramark 400, and has collaborated in the development of ATL's new HDI 1500. In so doing, Medison has surrendered its position in the office-based ob/gyn market. It will now focus on its high-end offering, the Voluson 530D, which boasts three-dimensional imaging capability.

This year will see continued evolution and rising interest in 3-D as companies inch their way toward real-time imaging. In the past, some vendors brought software and hardware packages to the RSNA exhibit floor that allow the compilation of volumetric data without clunky positioning stands. This year the next stage of advancement dawns, and software assumes more responsibility. Siemens will be at the forefront, unveiling a technology, tentatively dubbed 3Scape, that compiles both color Doppler and gray-scale images into volumes that can be parsed interactively.

Siemens' new offering will be available on its high-end scanner, Sonoline Elegra. Similarly, GE will be bolstering the power of a high-end product, System Five. The system, which was acquired along with Diasonics Vingmed last spring, is being groomed for the cardiology market. Before arriving on GE's doorstep, System Five was already an accomplished revenue generator in Europe. GE officially launched the scanner into the U.S. market in September, simultaneously announcing several upgrades, including an innovative harmonic imaging package that uses coded packets of ultrasound energy to intensify the signal returned by tissue.

Rounding out the premium offerings will be SSD-5500 from Aloka. The system, which includes the latest in digital beamformer and transducer technology, will be positioned against the best premium scanners available. Although introduced earlier this year outside the U.S., the RSNA meeting will mark its first North American showing, albeit as a work-in-progress product.

Just as there will be activity at the premium end, so will new products be shown in the mid-range segment. In early October, Siemens was scheduled to release a new shared-services product called Sienna. Most remarkable about the color and gray-scale product was the price-$80,000 for a fully configured system. Other general-purpose scanners will be making their first appearances at the RSNA meeting, namely HDI 1500 from ATL and AU5 from Biosound Esaote.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

Acuson. A highlight at the Acuson booth will be a new Microson transducer, called EC10C5. This endocavity probe is compatible with both endovaginal and endorectal scanning. It operates from 5 to 10 MHz and is especially promising in prostate imaging and in support of infertility procedures, such as harvesting eggs and implanting embryos. The company will also feature the Aegis NT review station, signifying the company's switch to Windows NT for its image management system. Advances described as hardware introductions bolstering the clinical value of Native Tissue Harmonic Imaging (NTHI) are planned for the Sequoia and Aspen scanners. NTHI will also be migrated to the 128 XP, a significant move considering the 15,000 installed systems worldwide.

Aloka. SSD-5500 will signify the company's decision to do battle in the premium segment. The scanner includes the latest generation digital beamformer, coupled with a novel transducer approach called hemispheric sound technology. Together they promise improved signal-to-noise performance and better spatial resolution and penetration. Company executives expect the unit to be in review at the Food and Drug Administration by the start of the RSNA meeting.

ATL. The acquisition by Philips of this once fiercely independent single-modality provider is this year's big news for ATL. But the company plans to generate some technological thunder as well. Among the highlights is a broadband high-frequency linear array with a wide aperture to be available on both the HDI 3000 and HDI 5000 scanners.

ATL plans to release a new image management capability, called Digital Video Streaming. Also noteworthy is an advanced 3-D workstation featuring new software. Upgrades are expected at the premium end, namely the Extreme Performance 99 upgrade for HDI 5000. (Similar upgrades were released earlier in the year on the HDI 3000 and HDI 1000 systems.) Notably, the HDI 5000 upgrade will include pulse inversion technology, a postprocessing capability that cancels out the fundamental transmit and receive signal, leaving just the harmonic waveform returned by the contrast agent. ATL will also highlight HDI 1500, a work-in-progress that features Tissue-Specific Imaging-very high quality imaging with HDI broadband capabilities, HDI high-performance scanheads, and connectivity.

Biosound Esaote. Having obtained FDA clearance in late summer, AU5 will be prominently featured in the Biosound booth. The color-flow scanner is fully featured for general imaging, vascular, intraoperative, ob/gyn, and intracavitary applications. The digital system supports high-resolution linear, convex, curved, and phased array transducers operating from 2.5 to 20 MHz. Introduced last year in Europe, the system will make its first appearance at the RSNA meeting.

GE. System Five is GE's new cardiology offering, which the vendor acquired with its purchase of Diasonics Vingmed in April. Featured highlights focus on left ventricular analysis. Anatomical M-Mode allows anatomically correct M-Mode measurements regardless of heart orientation, while Quantitative Tissue Velocity Imaging combines quantitative techniques with a curved M-mode. The product also features Coded Octave Imaging, which codes bursts of ultrasound so as to better separate the fundamental from the harmonic signal.

In radiology, a rigid schedule of annual "breakthroughs" has kept the company on track for new introductions timed for late winter and early spring on its premium and mid-tier products. If the company maintains form, expect the focus to be on digitally encoded ultrasound technologies that were unveiled in May on Logiq 700 MR. The technology, called Coded Excitation, is similar to Coded Octave Imaging in that they both transmit digital codes into the body, sending a sequence of ones and zeroes that are later decoded to identify the packets. As similar as they are, however, the two technologies were developed independently.

Hewlett-Packard. An upgrade to the HP ImagePoint system will be the focus as the company highlights improved functionality and transducers on its shared-services product. The upgrade package, which was released earlier this year, includes imaging up to 10 MHz, a 7.5 MHz linear transducer for small-parts imaging, and improved near-field color and color Doppler sensitivity. Improvements also include multiple-gestation calculations for obstetrics, as well as new postprocessing curves for better image quality.

Medison. Real-time 3-D imaging has long been a dream of ultrasound developers. This year Medison plans to demonstrate this capability on Voluson 530D. The system, which is positioned for sale in the U.S. to high-risk perinatology centers, will feature an abdominal probe and an endovaginal probe, each capable of volumetric acquisition. Also in the Medison booth will be Combison 301, a mid-tier system whose volumetric rectal probe will make the system particularly well suited for urological applications.

Siemens. This year's highlight, 3Scape, is a natural extension of the previously released SieScape, which assembles two-dimensional images into a panoramic view of the body. Software in this new 3-D version, which runs only on the Sonoline Elegra premium scanner, accumulates and assembles data from individual planes in the body into a volume.

The 3-D product is not real-time, but it's close. Images appear on screen in 2-D during the acquisition, providing the operator with a real-time progress guide to the exam. After completing the sweep, the data are reconstructed into a block from which 3-D segments or 2-D slices can be extracted with impressive rapidity.

Also featured will be Ensemble Harmonic Imaging, which uses a kind of phase inversion to enhance harmonic signals. The first part of this upgrade, designed for tissue harmonics, was released in spring. The second part, designed for contrast media, will be introduced at the RSNA meeting. Additionally, Siemens will be highlighting its Multi-D transducer design, featuring a multidimensional array.

The RSNA meeting will also mark the first showing of Sienna, mid-range workhorse unveiled in early October. The system offers color Doppler, high-frequency imaging and a steerable beam transducer. Sienna was designed by Siemens engineers but is being built by Japanese partner Matsushita.

Toshiba. An upgrade for the PowerVision 6000 scanner and an extension of the harmonic imaging package on PowerVision 7000 will pace the introductions in the Toshiba booth. The PowerVision 6000 upgrade will include three new probes-abdominal, neonatal, and small parts. The harmonic imaging enhancement will allow operators to measure contrast uptake and washout as a means for improving perfusion assessments.