Enter Your Email Address to Receive a
Copy of MedicExhange Member Demograhpics

TeraRecon, Inc., demonstrated a suite of innovative new tools hosted by the company’s flagship iNtuition solution at the 2011 Radiological Society of North America ( RSNA 2011 ) meeting.

TeraRecon, Inc. (www.terarecon.com), a global provider of advanced visualization and decision support solutions, today demonstrated a suite of innovative new tools hosted by the company’s flagship iNtuition solution, designed to support physicians in the development of new applications for volumetric acquisition modalities such as Computed Tomography ( CT ), Magnetic Resonance (MR) and Positron Emission Tomography ( PET ), at the 2011 Radiological Society of North America ( RSNA 2011 ) meeting at McCormick Place, Chicago, IL (Booth 2833, South Building, Hall A).

“Today, certain volumetric modalities such as CT, have reached a kind of plateau, a level of maturity where core applications like CT angiography are robust, well-established, and for the most part, fully evolved,” said Robert Taylor, Ph.D., TeraRecon president and chief executive officer. “However, tremendous potential remains to push forward the application of volumetric tools such as CT, MR and PET, to achieve new insights and additional benefits, from the same acquisition, through the application of more advanced analytical tools, such as those now offered by iNtuition. With this goal in mind, we are showcasing at this year’s RSNA, a suite of tools that allow physicians to approach imaging on an organ- or disease-based basis, bringing data into context with structure, function and anatomy.”

Lobular Decomposition is an analysis and segmentation tool that is designed with anatomical structures in mind. For any structure or organ region which is intertwined with a tree-like structure (such as an arterial and/or venous tree), the Lobular Decomposition tool allows the user to select the volume of interest, as well as the trees related to it, and to partition the volume into lobes or territories which are most proximal to the tree or any specific sub-branch thereof. This generic and flexible tool has potential research applications in analysis of the liver, lung, heart and various other organs and pathological structures.

Volumetric Histogram supports analysis of a given volume of interest based on partition of the constituent voxels into populations of different intensity or density ranges. This can be used, for example, to support research into disease processes such as cancer (where it is desirable to analyze the composition of tumors, in an attempt to understand the balance between active tumor, necrotic tissue, and edema), or emphysema (where the population of low-attenuation voxels in a lung CT examination may be a meaningful indicator of early disease).

Motion Analytics provides a powerful 2D representation of a 4D process, for more effective communication of findings when interactive 3D or 4D display is not available. Any dynamic volume acquisition, such as a beating heart, can be subjected to the Motion Analysis, to generate a color-coded “trail” of outlines of key boundaries, throughout the dynamic sequence, allowing a single 2D frame to capture and illustrate the motion, in a manner that can be readily reported in literature. The uniformity of the color pattern, or lack thereof, reflects the extent to which motion is harmonic, providing immediate visual feedback from a single image.

Multi-KV: Support for Dual Energy and Spectral Imaging provides support for established applications of dual energy or spectral imaging CT data, such as removal of bone or contrast, as well as toolkits to support research and investigation of new applications of such imaging techniques.

Enhanced multi-modality support is offered, including support for PET/MR fusion, and improved applications for MR such as time-intensity analysis and parametric mapping tools, which may be applied in the study of perfusion characteristics of normal or cancerous tissue.

Findings Workflow supports progressive analysis of serial acquisitions, for the same patient. Each finding can be tracked across multiple examinations, in a table that is maintained indefinitely in the iNtuition system’s database, without requiring the prior scans to remain present on the system. Measurement data and key images are captured and retained, allowing new scans to be placed in context with prior results, and reports to be produced at any time. Support for RECIST 1.1 is included although the tool may readily be used for analysis of various progressive conditions, not only those related to oncology. Export using the AIM (Annotation and Image Markup) XML Schema is supported.

iGENTLE ensures that iNtuition’s powerful suite of segmentation, centerline, and metadata extraction tools continue to work effectively, even with noisy scans characterized by low-dose acquisitions. Metadata are extracted from enhanced copies of the original scan, and then applied back onto the original, unmodified data, to improve performance of 3D tools without denying access to the original scan data.

“Considering the broad potential of this new suite of quantitative and structurally-aware tools for iNtuition, we are excited about the new era of volumetric imaging that will soon be ushered in by the researchers and clinical professionals who are pushing the envelope in what can be achieved with today’s volumetric modalities,” said Dr. Taylor. “Coupled with iNtuition’s unparalleled reach across the enterprise, from clinical care, to research, to clinical trials, and to referring physicians, we believe there is no better solution available today, to bring together images from multiple modalities, and multiple vendors, into a meaningful context for the advancement of volumetric imaging.”

iNtuition is available as an enterprise software license including highly scalable and flexible server-based deployments, providing powerful advanced tools to interpreting physicians and researchers, while offering enterprise-wide, zero-footprint web access to findings and results, through iNtuitionEMAV – Enterprise Medical Advanced Viewer, which integrates with VNA, EMR, RIS and PACS with a zero-footprint web or mobile viewer, that delivers meaningful access to advanced imaging procedures, enterprise-wide.

Source: TeraRecon