A Medical Device Daily

Positron (Houston) reported that it has formed an agreement with the University of Texas at Houston and the Weatherhead PET Center (Houston) headed by Dr. K. Lance Gould granting Positron a license to develop a comprehensive software system developed for the diagnostic and management needs in coronary artery disease.

The software system includes the quantification of coronary blood flow images by PET Longitudinal Gradient Analysis and Homogeneity Algorithm (LGA/HA) to determine severity of coronary disease as the objective non-invasive basis for or against coronary bypass surgery or stent procedures and the automated objective analysis of CT or invasive coronary angiograms and a comprehensive database management system.

The addition of the LGA/HA enables the Positron device to identify early coronary artery disease before clinically significant blockages develop.

Positron said that the quantitative accuracy provides non-invasive follow-up of treatment effectiveness in long-term studies documenting the prevention, stabilization or reversal of coronary artery disease in most patients. It said in a statement: "The Coronary Arteriographic Tree analysis program integrates fluid dynamic research into automated quantification of the entire coronary artery tree for diffuse atherosclerosis as well as multiple blockages in all coronary arteries and branches on a CT or invasive coronary arteriogram. It therefore avoids the common visual overestimation of severity that leads to unnecessary bypass surgery or angiogram catheter procedures.

Positron said this integrated clinical software bundle further differentiates it in the growing cardiac PET market.

In conjunction with Positron's software R&D, the company also reported the release of Positron version A3.7 software, incorporating the LGA/HA algorithms, a cardiac normal database and enhancements for quantification, usability and predictability unique to Positron PET software.

Joseph Oliverio, president of Positron, said, "With this software we can bridge the prior critical deficiencies with our integrated quantification of coronary anatomy by CTA, myocardial perfusion and heart function by PET imaging. The release of A3.7 and with the enhancements for quantification will allow Positron users to compete for cholesterol lowering drug trails that assess coronary artery disease reversal."

Positron imaging devices are sold under the trade name Posicam.

In other agreement news:

• Patient Safety Technologies (Los Angeles) said that its wholly owned subsidiary, SurgiCount Medical , has entered into a three-year national distribution agreement for its patented Safety-Sponge System with Professional Hospital Supply (PHS; Temecula, California), a provider of medical and surgical supplies and custom procedure kits to hospitals and alternate care facilities. Other details were not disclosed.

SurgiCount Medical received FDA 510(k) clearance to market and sell its Safety-Sponge System in March. The Safety-Sponge System is an integrated turnkey program of thermally affixed, data matrix tagged surgical sponges, line-of-sight scanning technology, and documentation that offers surgeons and hospitals a solution to surgical sponges accidentally left inside a human body after surgery. The Safety-Sponge System is the first computer-assisted program for counting sponges ever cleared by the FDA, the company said.

• iCAD (Nashua, New Hampshire), a provider of computer-aided detection (CAD) solutions, and MedAssets Supply Chain Systems (Atlanta), a group purchasing organization, reported an agreement that enables MedAssets' customers to purchase iCAD products at preferred pricing.

The agreement includes all iCAD film-based mammographic CAD solutions and the new TotalLook system, which acquires prior film mammograms at full image fidelity for use in comparative reading with digital mammography. The multi-year MedAssets-iCAD purchasing agreement became effective April 1.

• Ingenuity Systems (Redwood City, California) reported a partnership with Asuragen (Austin, Texas) to provide Ingenuity Pathways Analysis (IPA) 3.0 software capabilities to Asuragen's molecular diagnostic customers.

Ingenuity said that IPA is a software designed to enable researchers to model and analyze "complex biological systems at the core of life science research." It supports analysis of all high throughput analysis platforms and can be used in all areas of drug discovery and development, from target identification and validation to biomarkers, predictive toxicology and pharmacogenomics.