Princeton Junction, NJ, November 22, 2004
Imaging software company EDDA Technology announced that it has received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market its debut product, IQQA®-Chest software, an image analysis system that is specifically tailored for the softcopy review of digital chest radiographic images.
The IQQA®-Chest software carries the CE mark, and was also cleared by the Chinese State Food and Drug Administration for marketing and production in October 2004.
IQQA®-Chest is the first real-time interactive diagnostic analysis system, offering comprehensive tools not only for the identification but also for the quantification of nodules detected with projection chest radiography, the most commonly performed imaging procedure. In identifying nodules, physicians are able to use lesion-specific image enhancement viewing (LSEV) modes that dynamically detail image structures and highlight suspicious areas suggesting nodular abnormalities. Once suspect nodules are identified, the software offers regional analysis tools for the quantification of lesion characteristics including size, density and shape.
Combining lesion-specific image enhancement viewing and ROI (region of interest) evaluation tools, the software is designed to help radiologists with the identification, confirmation and quantification of pulmonary lesions. The software offers DICOM connectivity and automatically assembles diagnostic information into a clinical report for referring physicians and follow-up review. The “plug-and-play” software runs on standard PC platform.
“EDDA’s vision is to seamlessly integrate advanced diagnostic analysis technology into physicians’ softcopy reading process for improved workflow and clinical decision making,” said Jian-Zhong Qian, PhD, president and CEO of EDDA Technology. “Bridging the detection of pulmonary nodules with accurate characterization, IQQA®-Chest bolsters the image quality and workflow efficiency advantages of thoracic digital X-Ray. This combination will have a broad impact on improving nodule case diagnosis and patient prognosis, especially as digital X-Ray continues to gain market acceptance and acceleration.”
A clinical study presented last month at the 11th International Conference on Screening for Lung Cancer in Rome, Italy, suggested that the IQQA®-Chest software could help to reduce inter-observer variation and to improve the detection rate of small nodules. Conducted by Dr. Wei Song and Dr. Zhenyu Jin at the Peking Union Medical College Hospital in Beijing, China, the study involved the review of 232 chest DR cases from screening patients by physicians of different experience levels.