Article Excerpt:
TWST: Please tell us about Imaging Diagnostic Systems, Inc.Mr. Hansen: We are a development stage company formed around a very unique medical imaging technology. Our technology employs a laser that scans a woman's breast; the information gathered from that scan creates an image of the blood flow in the breast to help detect cancer without the use of harmful X-rays. This technology was invented almost 10 years ago and it's moved along quite nicely. We do not yet have FDA approval to market in this country. However, we are embarking on a global commercialization program to sell units in many countries around the world where we have received approvals. The device is called the CT Laser Mammography (or CTLM) system. A woman's breast is suspended into an opening on a horizontal table. The breast is surrounded by an array of detectors just like a CT scanner. Unlike a CT scanner, the CTLM system uses a laser as the light source instead of X-rays. The CTLM system projects the laser beam onto the breast and collects information about that breast in slices. From the slice data, we can see the entire volume of the breast as a 3-D model of the blood flow. The theory behind looking at the blood flow is that wherever a tumor is growing, it is calling on the body to provide additional blood to sponsor that tumor's growth. The CTLM system is designed to display the blood supply of the breast as well the process of new vessel growth, which medical professionals call angiogenesis. We have installed 24 CTLM systems in various hospitals and imaging centers around the world and we have completed close to 7,000 patient studies to date. So that's our status.
TWST: What's the underlying technology? Where is this on the imaging
spectrum? What are the standards, and what do you feel are the
advantages that your imaging systems provide?
Mr. Hansen: That's a very good question. We have all watched X-ray,
which was invented before the turn of the last century, become a major
imaging device. We have seen the development of ultrasound imaging and
nuclear medicine, which requires an injection of a radioisotope. There
was the development of X-ray into a CT scanner in the early 1970s, and
about a decade later, the emergence of magnetic resonance imaging. These
are the principal modalities that exist for imaging the body. The CTLM
system images the breast with a very passive laser light, which involves
no harmful radiation or a burning sensation of any kind. Lasers are used
in eye surgery as well as in other surgical procedures today.
Fundamentally, the CTLM system uses the same type of laser beam, except
that the beam that enters the breast tissue is converted into a medical
image. So this could be called the fifth imaging modality to emerge.
Tickers included in this excerpt: IMDS
TWST Newsletter
For more information call (212) 952 7433. The Wall Street Transcript does not endorse any of the comments made by interviewees, and does not make stock recommendations.