Cardiovascular Ultrasound System Provides 3D Wall Motion Tracking

A new cardiovascular ultrasound system has three-dimensional (3D) wall motion tracking to evaluate left ventricular (LV) function and volume.

Toshiba Medical Systems (Tokyo, Japan) recently announced the company's newest product--the Aplio Artida ultrasound system. With Artida's real-time, multi-planar reformatting capabilities, physicians can quantify global and regional LV function, including LV ejection fraction, volume, and severity of regurgitation. Arbitrary views of the heart not available in 2D imaging are also obtained that can help with surgical planning. The system was presented at the American College of Cardiology (ACC) annual meeting in Chicago, IL, USA, March 30-April 1, 2008.

The Artida is the first ultrasound system with the ability to track myocardial motion and display myocardial motion in 3D images. 2D/3D wall motion tracking features from Toshiba allow the user to obtain angle-independent, quantitative, and regional information about myocardial contraction. This ability to identify wall motion defects and heart timing will greatly improve cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) using pacemakers by determining who will be a responder to CRT and who will probably not. It will also help physicians optimize the pace maker setting.

"The evaluation of left ventricular function is the most important job for a clinical echo lab, and speckle tracking is the most exciting development in cardiac ultrasound for the evaluation of ventricular function in years,” said Dr. Gerard Aurigemma, professor of Medicine, University of Massachusetts and director, Noninvasive Cardiology at the UMass Memorial Medical Center (Worchester, USA). "Toshiba's 4D tracking offers estimation of left ventricular volumes, ejection fraction, and direct measurement of global and regional myocardial function by means of speckle tracking and provides insights that echocardiographers have not had before. This type of analysis will be how the next generation of echocardiographers quantifies ventricular function.”

"Toshiba's continued advancement of enhanced imaging applications for ultrasound further illustrates the company's commitment to develop applications that are important to our customers,” said Gordon Parhar, director, Ultrasound Business Unit, Toshiba. "We strive to introduce features that continue to improve diagnostic confidence and streamline clinical workflow, and have secured our global leadership position due to the increased adoption of our premium and high-end ultrasound systems.”

Artida includes additional features that enhance diagnostic capabilities, including multiple processors that run synchronously which allows for handling of large amounts of data. Artida's multiple processor design brings echocardiography to a new level of imaging performance and clarity. It employs the distributed processing power of more than 80 processor cores interconnected by a fast digital system interface. In fact, the engine is so powerful it can process an amount of data equal to a fully loaded DVD every single second.

Artida's SmartCast Beamformer uses advanced digital signal processing to control the shape of the ultrasound beam more precisely and flexibly than in comparable systems. Notable performance improvements, such as a simultaneous multiple transmit focus or a doubled frame rate in color Doppler mode help expedite exams while improving diagnostic accuracy.

Artida brings best-of-breed cardiac 4D imaging to everyday clinical use. Varieties of prospective and retrospective volume acquisition modes provide the freedom and flexibility to easily acquire and store 4D volumes as raw data. The easy-to-use volume navigation is delay-free and enables fast and accurate surfing of the volumes at any time, on either the system or offline. Artida's intuitive SmartSlice functions allow physicians to cut, slice and position the 4D volume quickly and conveniently.


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