The American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine’s (AIUM of Laurel, Md.) 44th annual convention officially opens at the Moscone Center in San Francisco on April 2, but a pre-convention program will get the ball rolling two days earlier.
Beryl Benacerraf, M.D., clinical professor of radiology, ob/gyn and reproductive biology at the Harvard University Medical School (Cambridge, Mass.) and director of obstetric ultrasound at Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston), will chair "Ultrasound in Y2K." The event will feature courses in five ultrasound specialties: fetal, pediatric, vascular, breast and gynecologic.
On the exhibit floor, Hitachi Medical Corp. of America (Twinsburg, Ohio) will preview its fully digital ultrasound system — the Hitachi 6000 — in San Francisco. The 6000 uses a Windows NT operating system and allows the user to create application-specific calculation packages. It also features a digital beamformer with 256 channel quad processing, 150 dB dynamic range and wide band focusing to maximize frame rate and resolution from near field to far field. There also is an on-board digital image management feature with multiple image transfer formats including DICOM. The Hitachi 6000 is awaiting marketing clearance from the FDA.
Toshiba America Medical Systems (Tustin, Calif.) will show its all-digital PowerVision 8000 ultrasound system, a fully configured 512-channel scanner for cardiology imaging applications. The 8000 is fully configured with an expanded range of clinical applications and calculation packages for hospitals that need a system to serve multiple departments. Instead of hardware overhauls or software upgrades, providers simply invest in a new transducer to extend the utility of the system. Toshiba feels its "plug-and-play" transducer technology means its systems have a lower lifecycle cost and increased expandability.
The PowerVision 8000 is the first system to feature Toshiba’s PowerView package, a fully integrated, digital information management system that advances diagnostic capabilities throughout the hospital. PowerView supports all DICOM service classes, integrated 3D and stress echo applications software and live digital video streaming for telemedicine.
Acuson Corp. (Mountain View, Calif.) travels down the road to AIUM with several new product debuts. One of the most notable additions is Acuson’s Cypress, the company’s first step into the low-end, portable all-digital phased-array echocardiography market.
Cypress comes to Acuson through the company’s acquisition of Ecton Inc. (Plymouth Meeting, Pa.) at the close of 1999.
Cypress features 2D, M-Mode, color flow, spectral Doppler, harmonic mode, digital image storage, direct DICOM networking, stress echo and contrast agent imaging. The portable system, priced in the $40,000 to $60,000 range, weighs less than 20 pounds and can be used on a table top or on a custom mobile cart.
ATL Ultrasound, a Philips Company (Bothell, Wash.), will use AIUM to show off its SonoCT real-time compound imaging package. Shown at the most recent meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) in November, SonoCT uses computed beam steering technology to steer the ultrasound beam right to left and make an image composed of nine lines of sight rather than just one. Its applications include breast and vascular imaging.
GE Medical Systems (GEMS of Waukesha, Wis.) will show several of its newer ultrasound technologies at AIUM this year. Released in 1999, GEMS’ first-time technologies at AIUM include B-Flow, a technique to visualize blood flow directly, rather than seeing the blood as dark areas or using contrast agents to make the blood visible. B-Flow technology also allows real-time viewing of both blood flow and walls of the blood vessels. That capability is designed to provide a better method of assessing stroke risk and to better visualize plaque within the arteries. B-Flow is available on GEMS’ premium Logiq 700 Expert ultrasound system.
On the system side, GEMS will unveil an advanced version of its Logiq 400 Pro, migrating some of the company’s higher-end technologies to the lower-end platform.
The Logiq 400 Pro — which targets the general imaging, ob/gyn and urology markets — now will include several features already found on the Logiq 700 Pro. The additions include automatic optimization, which enhances the quality of an image with the press of one button.
The Logiq 400 also will have the ability to connect with DICOM-compliant information and data management systems. B-Flow will not be among the new options available on the system. The Logiq 400 Pro series carries a list price between $50,000 and $80,000, depending on options.
GEMS also plans to release clinical developments regarding results of using GEMS’ tissue harmonic imaging for breast imaging and the ability to resolve finer detail and use that information for better diagnoses.
Medison America Inc. (Pleasanton, Calif.) comes to AIUM with its SonoAce 5500 digital grayscale ultrasound system. SonoAce received FDA 510(k) clearance this past December.
The unit — which is priced at less than $30,000 — targets individual and small group practices and is designed for applications in diagnosing breast lesions, gall and kidney stones, liver masses, vascular insufficiencies, cardiac abnormalities, aortic aneurysms, thyroid masses, ovarian cysts and pregnancy.
The SonoAce 5500 uses digital pixel-based focusing to produce high-resolution, distortion-free images. It selects the optimal number of array elements to image objects in the scanfield, which can enhance both near-field and overall lateral resolution.
The system’s imaging capabilities include Triple Frequency operation; a 64-frame Cine Loop memory that provides operators with instant access to the most recent 64 frames of live scanning; M-Mode looped images; Dual M-Mode displays and Dual or Quad Mode of B-Mode images.
At AIUM, Siemens Medical Systems Inc. (Iselin, N.J.) debuts a 5.0 upgrade to its Sonoline Elegra ultrasound platform. The new features include Photopic ultrasound imaging, 3-Scape real-time 3D imaging, a SieFlow grayscale flow imaging feature and a bookmarking function.
3-Scape is Siemens’ new 3D package that includes advanced rendering tools, such as enhanced surface rendering and an electronic scalpel. The scalpel is flexible and unneeded data can be "peeled away" to show clinical information of fetal anatomy and other organs throughout the body.
SieFlow grayscale flow imaging allows for direct visualization of flow in B-Mode. Siemens says SieFlow is designed to be particularly useful in diagnosis of soft plaques and to provide clearer demonstration of vessel anatomy and blood flow in cerebrovascular disease studies.
Siemens’ new bookmarking function is designed to make it easier to retrieve, edit and manipulate 3D volumes. Elegra’s bookmarking works the same way as an Internet user would bookmark Web sites.
Siemens also has a new Multi-D array transducer. The lightweight CX5-2 is designed primarily for high-resolution, deep abdominal and obstetrical imaging. The transducer also supports Siemens Ensemble Tissue Harmonic Imaging (THI) and Ensemble Contrast Imaging (ECI).
The company also will have its Sonoline Omnia ultrasound system on display. The unit, which debuted in December, is designed as a high-performance multi-specialty ultrasound platform and includes features, such as BW SieScape panoramic imaging and Tissue Harmonic Imaging.
Hand-held ultrasound developer Terason (Burlington, Mass.) will show its Terason 2000 ultraportable ultrasound system to AIUM attendees. Company officials were pleased with the reception the system got at the RSNA show in November, shortly after receiving FDA clearance on Nov. 10.
Rather than miniaturize the ultrasound system itself, the 2000 puts all of the scanner technology in the probe itself which connects directly to existing PC platforms — including palm top, notebook and wearable computers. The portability of the product makes it useful in ER and other emergency situations. Company officials said the system lists in the mid-$20,000 range, depending on system configuration.
Also in the hand-held arena is SonoSite Inc. (Bothell, Wash.), whose SonoSite 180 all-digital ultrasound system for obstetrics and gynecology, cardiology and general abdominal imaging is also cleared by the FDA.
The portable system weighs 5.4 pounds and delivers rapid response, all-digital, high-resolution imaging in 2D, color power Doppler and directional color power Doppler modes, allowing medical professionals to easily deliver ultrasound to any part of the hospital.
Aloka Co. Ltd. (Wallingford, Conn.) will offer its ProSound SSD-5500 PureHD ultrasound system which integrates Aloka’s hemispheric sound technology with a new generation of digital beam former. Released last summer, the 5500 also features the DICOM-compatible Data Management Subsystem (DMS) to ensure communication between HIS and RIS.
The PureHD in the product’s name acknowledges the Pure Harmonic Detection capabilities which provide superb harmonic echo for improved tissue differentiation, especially in difficult scanning situations. 
