LONGMONT, CO -- Sonora Medical Systems, Inc., a leading supplier of after market products, services and test equipment to the medical imaging ultrasound and MRI markets, announces that the Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office awarded U.S. Patent No. D565,444 to Sonora Medical Systems, the first patent awarded for its unique hand-held ultrasound probe and system testing device; the Nickel™. The inventors are: G. Wayne Moore, Jim Gessert, Edward Henry, James Ginther and Jason Sanders.

Commenting on the patent award G. Wayne Moore President and CEO of Sonora, said, "This patent marks the eighth US patent awarded to Sonora and the first patent specific to our industry unique hand-held Nickel™ ultrasound testing device."

The Nickel™ detects acoustic pulses coming from active crystals within an ultrasound probe and then injects signals back into the crystal to simulate a returning echo pulse. The Nickel™ tests the various performance characteristics of the ultrasound probe as well as the ultrasound system's B-mode, Doppler, and Color Flow modalities. The Nickel™ is used by Biomedical Engineers and other ultrasound service providers, to perform basic performance testing of ultrasound probes and the ultrasound system.

"As a leader in the development of products and services for both the ultrasound and MRI markets, we believe the Nickel™, in combination with our other proprietary technologies, such as FirstCall™ and FirstAssist™ provide us with a significant competitive advantage to better serve the industry," Moore said.

In addition to designing and manufacturing industry unique ultrasound test devices, Sonora Medical Systems, located at 1751 S. Fordham Street, Suite 100, Longmont, CO 80503, is the largest and fastest growing ultrasound and MRI depot-level repair company in the United States and its operations are certified to ISO9001 and 13485 quality standards. Sonora Medical Systems recently celebrated its 11-year anniversary in business.

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