A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

DMetrix (Tucson, Arizona), which bills itself as the only provider of ultra-rapid, array-microscope digital imaging systems, and BioImagene (Cupertino, California), a provider of image-management and image-analysis platforms, reported that they will be co-marketing DMetrix's DX-40 whole-slide scanner paired with BioImagene's Scientific Image Management System.

For the first time, according to DMetrix, scientists and pathologists will be able to implement a "true ultrarapid whole slide imaging acquisition device and scientific data management and analysis solution." Images are produced at "high throughput and at high resolution" with the DX-40 slide scanner. Image data and metadata can be accessed and analyzed securely through a web browser, DMetrix said.

The system supports multiple use cases, for instance, remote consultations for projects focused on cancer prevention and treatment.

Michael Descour, PhD, president of DMetrix, said that joining forces with BioImagene "allows us to bring a total and seamless solution to customers who wish to convert to digital pathology. By combining the leading large-scale scientific image-management solutions and DMetrix's image capture systems, we are providing an innovative digital imaging package that will enhance the way pre-clinical studies and patient care are managed."

In other agreements news:

• Sisters of Mercy Health System (St. Louis) and Zonare Medical Systems (Mountain View, California), a developer of ultrasound technology, recently entered into a two-year contract providing Sister of Mercy facilities the ability to purchase the z.one ultrasound system at the recommendation of Mercy's System Capital Management Department, Resource Optimization & Innovation, the group purchasing organization for Sisters of Mercy Health System.

The contract is to provide ultrasound imaging at four rural satellite locations.

Based on Zone Sonography technology, Zonare says it has brought the first convertible ultrasound platform to the industry with "superb" image quality at a "substantial price to-value ratio."

The company said clinicians are able to instantly convert the z.one platform from a full-featured, cart-based system into a compact, ultrasound system with the performance of substantially larger and more expensive ultrasound units, with greater portability.

• Illumina (San Diego) reported an agreement with the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (Baltimore), in collaboration with researchers at the National Human Genome Center at Howard University (Washington), to use the Infinium HumanHap650Y Bead-Chip for an asthma study of more than 2,000 individuals and their families.

The study will be led by Kathleen Barnes of Johns Hopkins and is supported by a recent grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH; Bethesda, Maryland).

Study subjects involve African-American volunteers from the Baltimore-Washington area, and African-Caribbean volunteers and their family members from Barbados.

"The identification of genes that contribute to a complex disease like asthma may lead to the development of enhanced diagnostic tools, early detection and improved health outcomes for patients and their families," said Jay Flatley, Illumina president and CEO. "By using Illumina's HumanHap650Y BeadChip, which is specifically designed for the study of African populations, a unique opportunity said in his presentation that this harvesting has been done from "young and healthy" patients, primarily as part of a cosmetic surgery procedure.

In this study, it was determined that adipose stem cells can be collected from the elderly patients with cardiovascular disease — that is, those most likely to benefit from stem cell treatment for heart damage.

The researchers isolated stem cells from fat collected via standard liposuction from 49 patients undergoing cardiovascular procedures; the cells are then cultured for seven days.

The resulting stem cells were determined to be healthy and exists to dramatically improve our understanding of the causes of asthma."

Illumina's HumanHap650Y Genotyping BeadChip enables whole-genome genotyping of more than 655,000 tag SNP markers derived from the International HapMap Projecton a single BeadChip. Of these tag SNPs, over 100,000 Yoruba-specific tag SNPs were added to the HumanHap550 BeadChip to provide even more comprehensive coverage for populations of African descent. The HumanHap650Y BeadChip is powered by the Infinium Assay, which enables intelligent SNP selection through unrestricted locus selection.

• BioLucent (Aliso Viejo, California), maker of the MammoPad breast cushion, reported a new agreement to provide MammoPad to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC; Lebanon, New Hampshire), a nationally ranked academic medical center serving northern New England.

The MammoPad breast cushion will be provided to all of the approximately 15,000 women each year who receive screening or diagnostic mammograms at DHMC.

MammoPad is a radiolucent, FDA-cleared foam cushion that covers the cold, hard surfaces of all commercially available mammography equipment. Clinical studies show the cushion can reduce mammography-related discomfort by half for three out of four women, according to BioLucent.