Toshiba and TomTec Deliver New Tools for Cardiac 4D Ultrasound

Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation and TomTec Imaging Systems
GmbH announced an agreement to deliver new tools for assessing cardiac
4D data and a collaboration to make them more widely available at
EuroEcho which is held from December 5th to 8th in Lisbon, Portugal.
With the recent announcement of Toshiba´s Artida(TM) Cardiac 4D
Ultrasound System, a variety of new 4D capabilities were released.
TomTec diagnostic workstations will be able to read Artida´s data
providing increased customer options for image review and a host of
new advanced applications.

"We designed Artida to be the first of a new generation of the
cardiac 4D ultrasound systems." said Hiroyuki Tsujino, General
Manager, Ultrasound Systems Division at Toshiba Medical Systems
Corporation. "This is why we developed the smallest and lightest 4D
transducers together with the SmartCore technology to generate precise
4D images quickly. To provide a total workflow solution to the
customer, TomTec was a natural choice for the image review and
analysis. We admire TomTec for its long-standing commitment to
innovation in diagnostic ultrasound"

TomTec and Toshiba´s newly announced systems are at the forefront
of a new push for clinical applications for cardiac 4D ultrasound.
This push is making off line review and analysis of 4D data
increasingly important. So, it may be surprising to many users that
there is no standard for 4D ultrasound data formats. This means that
while regular ultrasound images are compatible across a very wide
range of review stations, 4D data is not. "Due to its widespread
adoption in 4D echo, we view TomTec as the defacto standard for off
line 4D solution" said Tsujino.

TomTec will expand it´s workstation products compatibility to
analyze Artida 2D, 3D and 4D ultrasound data. "Combining Toshiba´s
ultrasound expertise and our advanced technologies will give our
customers access to innovative products." said Bernhard Mumm,
President and CTO of TomTec. "By focusing on clinical workflow we can
give our customers fast and reproducible results in the field of
cardiac 4D quantification for a variety of clinical applications such
as global left ventricular (LV) function quantification, regional LV
dyssynchrony measurement, mitral valve assessment as a surgical
planning tools as well as right ventricular functional assessment."

About Toshiba

With headquarters in Tochigi, Japan, Toshiba Medical Systems
Corporation, a group company of Toshiba Corporation, is a global
leading provider of diagnostic medical imaging systems and
comprehensive medical solutions, such as CT, Cath & EP Labs, X-ray,
Ultrasound, Nuclear Medicine, MRI and information systems. Toshiba
Corporation is a leader in information and communications systems,
electronic components, consumer products, and power systems. Toshiba
has approximately 191,000 employees worldwide and annual sales of $60
billion.

Toshiba´s newly announced Artida 4D cardiovascular ultrasound
system raises the bar on image quality, ease of use and advanced
quantification technologies such as the exclusive 3D wall motion
tracking based on the novel cubic template matching technology, which
is generating a lot of interest in the echocardiography community.

About TomTec

TomTec Imaging Systems GmbH, with headquarter located in Munich -
Germany is a worldwide leader in medical image software solutions. The
company maintains close working relationships with many leading
universities around the world. TomTec holds a leading position in
driving innovations in the field of diagnostic ultrasound applications
and integrates them for routine clinical use into its medical device
manufacturing partner products. Its product line encompasses a wide
range of 2D and 3D/4D technology for visualization, quantification and
information-processing as well as management of multimodality image
data. TomTec´s products are applicable to the fields of adult and
pediatric cardiology as well as obstetrics and gynecology, radiology,
and vascular diagnostics.

Visit TomTec´s web site at www.tomtec.de.

Artida is a trademark of Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation.