Diasonics Vingmed features System Five

Diasonics Vingmed Ultrasound (Hall A, #2948) will display System Five, the company's new high-end echocardiography scanner that began shipping in the U.S. this year (SCAN 3/19/97). The Santa Clara, CA, vendor is developing System Five's core technology into a premium radiology scanner that it plans to begin shipping in 1998.

System Five, developed by Diasonics Vingmed's Norwegian subsidiary, incorporates all-digital architecture and supercomputing technology, resulting in a scanner with very high data-processing speeds, according to Kenneth McDonnell, vice president of marketing. Because of this design, System Five excels in many areas, he said, in particular high-frame-rate imaging: The scanner can image at frame rates of up to 400 fps.

System Five is gaining momentum in the cardiac market, and Diasonics believes a radiology system would be well received. The company is building a radiology scanner by adding certain Diasonics radiology components, such as confocal imaging, matched impedance, and 2-D probe technology, to the core beamformer architecture. Diasonics will display a work-in-progress system at its RSNA booth and plans to begin commercial shipments by next April. The scanner will support 3-D and harmonic imaging techniques.

New technologies Diasonics is developing for System Five include real-time compounding, in which images are acquired with a linear-array probe from two different angles. The technique produces a wider far field, reduces speckle, and improves tissue definition. Anatomical m-mode is a cardiac imaging technique in which the cursor beam used for quantitative measurements can be adjusted to cross the heart wall at a perpendicular angle, resulting in a more accurate measurement, McDonnell said.

In other Diasonics news, the mid-range Synergy system is being migrated from a radiology scanner to a shared-service system, and Diasonics will show new cardiac capabilities for the unit. Diasonics is also upgrading the scanner's operating system from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95 and 98.