GE rolls out integrated 4D echo unit

GE Healthcare is introducing the Vivid 7 Dimension cardiovascular ultrasound system, which the company says is the system "first fully integrated real-time 4D and multi-dimensional imaging capabilities."

The Vivid 7 Dimension utilizes new echocardiography acquisition, reconstruction and analysis techniques that allow physicians to view images in multiple planes at the same time. Enabled by Vivid 7's raw data and software-driven platform, it also provides new quantitative tools and parametric images.

"Multi-dimensional imaging could prove to be an excellent productivity tool for the echo lab," says James Thomas, MD, director of cardiovascular imaging at Cleveland Clinic. "The ability to obtain grayscale, color, Doppler and 4D images from one transducer could shorten exam time, as well as increase the diagnostic information obtained from each patient."

Among the features of the Vivid 7 Dimension are: multi-dimensional imaging that acquires bi-plane and tri-plane images with color and Doppler with the goal of reducing exam times and viewing more myocardial segments for exam and stress echo exams; 4D imaging; 4D Tissue Synchronization Imaging (TSI), a dynamic 4D parametric imaging model of dyssynchrony from single heart beat to better understand and communicate a patient's heart condition; and Bloodflow Imaging (BFI), a vascular mode that gives clinicians a better understanding and delineation of flow in vessels.

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