AMS to show Aurora with FDA clearance

Advanced Mammography Systems will enjoy its first RSNA meetingwith 510(k) clearance for its Aurora 0.5-tesla dedicated MR mammographyscanner, which it is marketing at a list price of about $500,000.AMS, of Wilmington, MA, received the Food and Drug Administration'simprimatur in February, and the first beta unit was installedat the Breast Imaging Center at the University of Texas MedicalBranch in Galveston. That center has examined over 200 women withthe system, AMS reported last month.

Aurora is an important part of a new corporate strategy adoptedearlier this year by AMS parent Advanced NMR Systems, which wasforced to shut down its InstaScan echo-planar imaging effort dueto slow sales (SCAN 6/19/96). Advanced NMR intends to open a networkof Aurora Breast Imaging centers to offer MR mammography services.The first such center will be installed in early 1997 at the Faulkner-SagoffCentre for Breast Health Care at Faulkner Hospital in Boston.