Atlanta, Ga. -- GE Healthcare announced at the American College of Cardiology annual scientific sessions advancements on the award-winning LightSpeed VCT with the addition of the CardIQ Xpress workflow solution for CT Angiography studies. CardIQ Xpress lays the groundwork for the next-generation of cardiac CT workflow by enabling a flexible, simple and robust workflow environment for cardiologists and technologists.

Designed with leading cardiologists, CardIQ Xpress provides efficient review of cardiovascular anatomy by providing flexible reading styles. From 2D review, to vessel analysis to save state the cardiologist has may options depending on the clinical need. A key aspect of the software, with 2D review, is the inclusion of predefined reading steps to view coronary vessels in a systematic fashion. With a dual monitor two opposing angles are created from the oblique review tool to review areas on abnormal anatomy for confirmation of disease. Clinical use indicates CardIQ Express enables normal CTA studies to be read in less than three minutes.

"With CardIQ Xpress software and its 2D review capabilities, I'm now able to interpret between 10 to 12 cases an hour. It has made Cardiac CTA a truly practical tool for practices like ours - and that's great news for our patients," said Tracy Callister M.D., Tennessee Heart and Vascular.

"CardIQ Xpress is the result of feedback from cardiologists who told us they need a flexible, powerful and easy-to-use tool for review of CT images," said DeAnn Haas global product manager, Cardiovascular CT, GE Healthcare. "This next generation solution is designed for all cardiologists, from the novice to the experienced user."

New features, such as Save State, streamline CTA workflow by simplifying and coordinating the process between technologists and cardiologists. Technologists can process the CT data and save the current state of data analysis for future review by the cardiologist, all with one mouse click. This includes Vessel Analysis tracking, 3D Tree and Heart, angiographic view and 4D beating movies.

"CardIQ Xpress has made my job easier, because our technologists are able to do such a beautiful job of preprocessing the scan data, I'm often able to interpret a complete cardiac CTA study in about 10 minutes." said Jason Cole, M.D., Cardiology Associates, Mobile, Alabama.

Improved workflow for comprehensive exams is further streamlined with CardIQ Xpress, including Cardiac Reformat for dynamic study review, and the ability to select the best phase for coronary artery review by performing a phased drop on the fly, an important feature that increases clinical confidence and productivity. Other features include: complete assessment of left ventricle for ejection fraction and Volume calculations, full review of coronary vessels with interactive reading tools, anatomical assessment with 3D capabilities and pre-defined layouts.

"CardIQ Xpress seamlessly builds from the best of CardIQ clinical features and adds new applications for a more productive clinical environment. GE continues to rely on clinical feedback to fulfill unmet needs and arm the cardiologists with the clinical confidence they want," said Haas.

About GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, performance improvement, drug discovery, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies is helping clinicians around the world re-imagine new ways to predict, diagnose, inform and treat disease, so their patients can live their lives to the fullest.

GE Healthcare's broad range of products and services enable healthcare providers to better diagnose and treat cancer, heart disease, neurological diseases, and other conditions earlier. Our vision for the future is to enable a new "early health" model of care focused on earlier diagnosis, pre-symptomatic disease detection and disease prevention. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a $15 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 43,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at www.gehealthcare.com.