CHICAGO - GE Healthcare highlighted new breakthroughs to its Vivid cardiovascular ultrasound platform at the recent annual meeting of the American Heart Association (AHA) in Chicago. The Vivid 7 Dimension '06 is designed to help clinicians assess cardiovascular anatomy and LV function with more accuracy. This system can help improve a clinician's diagnostic confidence by making 4D cardiovascular imaging easier to use during day-to-day clinical exams.

The Vivid 7 Dimension system is a PC based, software, raw data ultrasound platform that continues to evolve and improve year after year. Annual breakthroughs renew the platform with cutting edge software and hardware. Building on these annual breakthroughs, the Vivid 7 Dimension 06' delivers more real-time 4D imaging capabilities than ever before. Multi-dimensional imaging formats, real-time, un-gated, un-spliced 4D imaging and real-time 4D full volume imaging, in an easy to use package, helps clinicians take 4D imaging out of the research lab and into a their everyday clinical routine.

"The additional information provided by 4D echocardiography increases diagnostic confidence for both the anatomical and functional assessment versus standard 2D imaging. The 4D protocol is both easy to use and easy to understand, and it is improving care across a broad range of patients," said Dr. Randy Martin, professor of medicine and director of echocardiology at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, GA.


New for Vivid 7 Dimension '06:

* Real-time 4D color flow full volume imaging - allows clinicians to assess hemodynamic information in color and real time in the same heart cycle - with the option of viewing a 6 or 9 slice cross section of the left ventricle right on the Vivid 7 system.
* 4D LV Volume - an EchoPAC Dimension option, gives users the ability to quantify volume information from real-time full volume Vivid
7 data. This GE Healthcare specially tailored package from TomTec Imaging Systems, can now provide a full assessment of the left ventricle volumes free of geometric assumptions.

"The 4D LV-Volume tool is quick, robust and intuitive. We will use it for patients with reduced LV function, wall motion abnormalities or asynchrony. It has a good chance to become a routine tool for these cases," said Andreas Franke, Professor at the University Hospital in Aachen, Germany.

The Vivid 7 Dimension '06 breakthroughs also continue to lead the way with more quantitative tools for left ventricular wall motion and synchronicity. As a result, clinicians can acquire more accurate and detailed cardiovascular information in fewer, faster steps, streamlining their day-to-day workflow and allowing for better patient care.

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