Frost & Sullivan Lauds Positron Corporation for Cardiac-Focused PET Molecular Imaging Scanner Attrius(TM)

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Mar 11, 2010, 07:45 ET

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., March 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Based on its recent analysis of the cardiac molecular imaging systems market, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Positron Corporation with the 2010 North American Award for New Product Innovation, for its pioneering cardiac positron emission tomography (PET) scanner, Attrius™. The Attrius™ was developed and optimized for molecular imaging of the heart, making it the ideal solution for cardiologists and hospitals looking to add high accuracy, cost effective imaging technology.

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The nuclear cardiology imaging scene has been dominated by single photon emission tomography (SPECT) until recently when the imaging world was flipped upside down by the announcement of SPECT reimbursement cuts by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), combined with the world shortage of the molybdenum-99 isotope. Many in the industry are looking for new technologies to improve their diagnostic accuracy, improve patient outcomes, reduce patient radiation exposure, all while adding to their bottom line. The elusive solution to this dire situation may lie in an already well established, underutilized imaging modality: PET.

While PET is a more costly procedure than the SPECT imaging, the use of PET in cardiac nuclear medicine has been shown to reduce long-term costs and resolve clinically complicated cases. The accuracy of PET helps reduce the need for unnecessary angiograms. It can also reduce bypass surgeries by more accurately risk stratifying patients that may require the invasive procedure from those that might benefit from alternative therapies. This modality has also been shown to quantitatively monitor therapy, which helps provide personalized medicine plan for each patient. PET, specifically without a CT, has shown to have the lowest radiation exposure for the assessment of coronary disease.

"Positron's Attrius is the only dedicated PET available today for the thousands of cardiologists and hospitals looking for a solution to today's imaging challenges," concludes Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Prasanna Kannan. "Implementing a PET program will allow cardiologists and hospitals to improve their diagnostic accuracy, reduce unnecessary downstream procedures, reduce patient radiation exposure, and practice more efficiency while improving their bottom line."

Taking advantage of these trends, Positron strategically introduced the industry's first cardiac optimized PET scanner. Positron's Attrius scanner is designed to provide a significantly lower cost of ownership as compared to PET/CT modalities and does not need additional space for electronics. It has a much smaller footprint, fewer boards, easier access to the detector modules, less power consumption, and automated tuning features imbibed within it. The product can easily integrate into practices of all sizes. The table limit was increased to 450lbs, permitting larger patients to be imaged. The table is also capable of loading patients from the front or back, improving the position options for imaging.

Further, Positron's cardiac PET scanner is one of the highest 2D sensitivity systems on the market today. It features more uniformity achieved in its slice sensitivity, consistency in the quantitation from slice-to-slice, and the ability to more accurately define the locale of a lesion or perfusion defect. The system is designed to provide concurrent acquisition, reconstruction, image processing and display, as well as other functions such as data archiving, without interference. The Attrius™ includes many key features in its design: uniform spatial resolution in all three planes; true dynamic and gated 82Rb acquisition capability; and a unique staggered detector design for optimal quantitative results.

The Attrius™ also includes a robust, cardiac specific, imaging software package designed to ensure effortless interpretation for today's most challenging clinical cases for nuclear cardiologists who value high quality PET imagery at an affordable price. Additional features include heart disease specific software including the ability to monitor therapy, coronary artery overlay display, open architecture for new protocol development and customization and motion correction software.

"With the introduction of Positron's Attrius cardiac PET scanner, the issues surrounding sensitivity of PET imaging like size of detector, distance from patient, detector encoding scheme, parallelism of the electronics, and packing fraction are greatly reduced," says Prasanna Kannan. "The Positron Attrius scanner's design is optimized for cardiac imaging with a large list mode memory buffer allowing for concurrent flow, perfusion and dynamic function imaging. It does not need the use of CT unlike other expensive PET/CT market offerings."

For these achievements, Positron is the worthy recipient of the 2010 Frost & Sullivan Award for New Product Innovation in the cardiac molecular imaging systems market. Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has demonstrated superior performance against key competitors based on the following benchmarking criteria: innovative element of the product; leverage of leading edge technologies; value added features/benefits; increased customer value; and customer acquisition/penetration potential.

Frost & Sullivan's Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.

About Positron Corporation

Positron is a molecular imaging company focused on Nuclear Cardiology. Positron utilizes its proprietary product line to provide unique solutions to the Nuclear Medicine community ranging from imaging systems to radiopharmaceutical distribution. Besides the Attrius™, Positron products include the Pulse®, a SPECT imaging device; the Nuclear Pharm-Assist®, an automated radiopharmaceutical distribution device; and the Tech-Assist™, a radiopharmaceutical injection shield. As a prominent player in the cardiac imaging industry, Positron maintains associations and relationships with multiple industry associations including the Academy of Molecular Imaging, American College of Cardiology American Society of Nuclear Cardiology and Society of Nuclear Medicine. Positron founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. More information about Positron is available at http://www.positron.com.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best-in-class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined research and best-practice models to drive the generation, evaluation, and implementation of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages over 45 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from 40 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership, please visit http://www.awards.frost.com.