Bennett X-Ray poised to market digital spot mammography unit

M-DSI would retrofit to Contour system

Bennett X-Ray Technologies is about to join competitors Loradand Fischer Imaging in the heated market for digital spot mammographydevices. The Copiague, NY, firm expects Food and Drug Administrationclearance for its M-DSI digital spot mammography system imminently.

Bennett held a news conference earlier this month to announcethe impending arrival of M-DSI, which was developed in cooperationwith aerospace firm Northrop Grumman in Bethpage, NY. Bennettwill manufacture the product under license.

M-DSI is designed for digital lesion localization and for guidingcore biopsy procedures using the Cytoguide biopsy device, whichcan be retrofitted to Bennett's flagship Contour mammography system.M-DSI features a charge-coupled device (CCD) camera with a fiber-opticcoupling. The technology was originally developed by Grumman formilitary sensor applications and was adapted for medical use withBennett's help.

Although Bennett joins the digital spot mammography fray morethan a year behind Lorad and Fischer, it plans to make up forlost time by emphasizing the cost-effectiveness of its technology.Because of Contour's tilting ability, clinicians can perform needlebiopsies in a range of positions without a dedicated breast biopsytable, according to Grady Miars, director of sales and marketing.Patients can be biopsied in whatever position is most effectivefor accessing the lesion, from standing to recumbent.

"Bennett is the only company that offers systems withmultidimensional positional capabilities," Miars said. "Youare not locked into a prone position."

The list price of a Contour system, Cytoguide device and M-DSIsystem with workstation will be in the range of $180,000, accordingto Miars. M-DSI will also be offered to the existing installedbase of Contour systems.

Bennett also plans to emphasize M-DSI's larger field-of-view,which at 55 x 50 mm is 5 mm larger in the x-axis than either theLorad or Fischer products. The device's resolution is 1242 x 1152,which Bennett claims contains 36% more pixels than competing systems.

M-DSI will not be the climax of Bennett's foray into digitalmammography. Like Lorad and Fischer, Bennett is developing a digitalmammography system with a field-of-view large enough to imagethe entire breast. Bennett will work with Northrop Grumman onthat system and plans to display a work-in-progress at the RadiologicalSociety of North America meeting in November.

As for M-DSI, Bennett has completed the final paperwork onthe system's 510(k) application and expects the FDA's go-aheadany day, according to Miars. Bennett has built a 2000-square-footclean room to manufacture the devices and is ready to begin shipping.

"We've brought on new jobs and we've started with theparts flow." Miars said. "We are ready to go."