September 30, 2016 — Hitachi Aloka Medical America recently announced the support of its Arietta 70 and Arietta 60 ultrasound systems with iVu Imaging Corp.’s Sofia 3-D whole-breast imaging system. The Hitachi Arietta platform and its long linear transducer enable the Sofia system to automate the 3-D radial acquisition of an entire breast in nearly half the time of previous-generation ultrasound systems.
David Famiglietti, president of Hitachi Aloka Medical America, explained that pairing Arietta with Sofia improves the image quality and speed of whole-breast exams. The combination allows scan times of 30 seconds per breast, enabling a bilateral whole-breast study to be scheduled every 10 minutes.
Famiglietti also highlighted Sofia’s convertible scan table that allows it to support a broad spectrum of conventional manual ultrasound exams when it is not being used for whole-breast imaging.
Mark Stribling, president of iVu, noted “The Arietta platform is the latest in a series of game-changing breakthroughs for 3-D whole-breast ultrasound. Hitachi ultrasound now enables the Sofia system to scan eight times faster than its original configuration, while also tripling the resolution.” Stribling added, “At the same time, we are still able to present a single breast volume to the radiologist, clearly showing the structures of the breast in their natively-acquired radial plane along with the reconstructed coronal, sagittal, and oblique views if desired. The result is average interpretation times of about one minute per breast.”
Hitachi Aloka Medical America stated that it will begin shipping Sofia-capable Arietta 70 and Arietta 60 systems in the United States in September and will offer a software upgrade to existing Arietta 70 and Arietta 60 customers shortly thereafter.
For more information: www.hitachi-aloka.com, www.ivuimaging.com