The Philips Healthcare and Siemens Medical Solutions divisions of the famous companies have joined forces with Boston Scientific in order to develop the iLab Ultrasound System. This new piece of medical equipment is using the Philips Allura Xper and the Siemens AXIOM Artis and Artis X-Ray systems. The advanced technology will deliver highly detailed 360-degree images inside the patients' hearts and coronary vessels and it is called IVUS, short for Intravascular Ultrasound.

"Boston Scientific is proud to work with Philips and Siemens to offer integrated imaging systems that support improvements in performance, workflow and ease of use," said Joe Fitzgerald, Senior Vice President and President of Boston Scientific's Endovascular Unit. "Cath labs worldwide can now integrate the iLab Ultrasound Imaging System with the vast majority of interventional X-ray systems."

The apparatus is said to be more detailed than an angiography and seems like a revolutionary system, which will help with the diagnosis and finding of diseased tissue inside those suffering from heart afflictions. The iLab System will be used in cardiac catheterization laboratories, together with the X-ray systems from Philips and Siemens.

The way this new IVUS technology works is with the help of a tiny catheter inserted directly into the heart's vessels. There, high-frequency sound waves reflected off the tissue's or vessel's walls are to be recognized by the iLab System as an image, which contains detailed information from within the respective heart. The high quality imaging in such procedures is new in the medical environment and Boston Scientific is going to present it Paris from today until May 28.

Hopefully, the iLab Ultrasound Imaging System will be adopted by hospitals specialized in treating heart diseases. Since it is built so that it is compatible with leading X-ray systems from Philips and Siemens, I guess patients will be more relieved when knowing they are treated with the latest technologies available. Wouldn't you be?


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