San Diego, CA - Continuing its leadership in PET/CT technology, GE Healthcare announced at the annual meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine in San Diego, the first installations of the company's new Discovery VCT, the world's first true 64-slice combination positron emission tomography and volume computed tomography (PET/CT) system. GE's Discovery VCT has the potential to transform the way physicians diagnose and treat heart disease and other life-threatening illnesses.

The Discovery VCT marries through the Discovery Dimension platform, the high-speed, high-resolution capabilities of GE's volumetric CT with the high sensitivity breakthrough motion imaging capabilities of its industry leading Discovery PET system. By combining these scanning technologies, the Discovery VCT provides the tools to enable physicians to more accurately diagnose and identify heart disease and other conditions, including cancer and neurological disorders.

"We are entering a new era of less invasive cardiology in which PET/CT imaging will play a major role in managing heart disease," said Joe Hogan, president and CEO of GE Healthcare. "Combining the functional capabilities of PET with the speed and resolution of volume CT will propel cardiac imaging and has the potential to transform the diagnosis and treatment decisions of heart disease."

"GE's Discovery VCT enables me to access essential functional and anatomical patient data, including perfusion map at rest and peak cardiac stress, CT angiography and cardiac calcium score, all in one setting," said Dr. Marcelo Di Carli, director of Nuclear Medicine/PET and Co-Director of Cardiovascular Imaging at Brigham and Women's Hospital. "The information made available through the Discovery VCT helps me to quickly and accurately diagnose cardiac patients, helping to eliminate unnecessary invasive diagnostic procedures while guiding more appropriate treatment decisions."

GE has installed simultaneously the new system in the molecular imaging research institution Turku PET Center in Finland.

"PET and VCT imaging allows linking the anatomical findings of coronary arteries with the information of myocardial perfusion, function and metabolism. That may improve the accuracy of the assessment of myocardial viability," said Professor Juhani Knuuti Director of the center.

"The greatest potential of Discovery VCT though, lies in future applications of molecular imaging, matched with precise anatomical detail in imaging the coronary arteries we will be pursuing using the tools provided in Discovery Dimension motion PET imaging capabilities," said Knuuti.

Leveraging the Innovation of GE's LightSpeed VCT to Further Enhance Cardiac Imaging

GE originally designed the LightSpeed VCT, the world's first volume CT system, to easily integrate with its PET technology.

"Developing the world's only volumetric, 64-slice PET/CT is a logical extension of our success with the LightSpeed VCT," said

Gene Saragnese vice president and general manager of GE Healthcare's global Molecular Imaging and CT business.

The LightSpeed VCT is able to noninvasively capture images of the heart and coronary arteries in as few as five heartbeats. In a single rotation, the system creates 64 sub-millimetric-thin images, totaling 40 millimeters of anatomical coverage. These images are combined with the Discovery STE metabolic and physiological PET images to form a three-dimensional fused view of the patient's anatomy and corresponding function for the physician to analyze.

"The Discovery VCT, like the LightSpeed VCT, was built for physicians and molecular imaging researchers based on their clinical needs, from the ground up," said Saragnese. "The speed and resolution of the LightSpeed VCT combined with the advanced imaging capabilities of Discovery Dimension PET platform will keep GE at the forefront of diagnostic cardiovascular care."

GE the Industry Leader in Cardiac PET/CT

GE's flagship Discovery PET/CT system is the cardiac and whole body PET/CT market leader, providing physicians with anatomical and physiological information and helping to improve diagnostic confidence when assessing coronary artery disease and cardiac viability. GE has invested more than $160 million in the research and development of hybrid imaging technology and holds 25 related patents.

The company first began its work combining images with the development of the GE Millennium VG Hawkeye SPECT/CT system in 1999, and launched the first commercially available PET/CT, the Discovery LS, in 2001.< <

About GE Healthcare
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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 www.gehealthcare.com.