The companies on Dec. 18 announced the definitive agreement to make Instrumentarium — which specializes in anesthesiology, critical care, patient monitoring and mammography products — part of GE Medical Systems (GEMS of Waukesha, Wis.).

GE Medical System’s acquisition of Instrumentarium would bring the Diamond breast care system into GEMS’ portfolio.

GE is offering approximately $41 million (or 40 Euros) per share in cash to buy all outstanding Instrumentarium shares. The transaction would close in 2003, pending shareholder and regulatory approvals and other customary conditions.

The boards of directors of both Instrumentarium and GE have approved the proposal.

GEMS President and CEO Joseph M. Hogan said in a prepared statement that the “combination of Instrumentarium and GE positions us to support our healthcare customers with a complementary range of anesthesia monitoring and delivery, critical care, infant care and diagnostic imaging solutions.”

Instrumentarium derives approximately 80 percent of its sales from its anesthesia and critical care operations, which include Datex-Ohmeda Inc. (Madison), Deio Oy (Helsinki) and Spacelabs Medical (Redmond, Wash.). The company achieved worldwide sales of approximately $1.06 billion (or 1.02 billion Euros) in 2001.

Instrumentarium also develops and manufactures infant care products and mammography equipment. Its U.S. headquarters — Instrumentarium Imaging Inc. — is in Milwaukee.

Instrumentarium employs approximately 5,400 people worldwide, and operates R&D and manufacturing facilities in Helsinki and Kuopio, Finland; Bromma and Jallivaara, Sweden; Nuremberg, Germany; Madison, Wis.; Laurel, Md.; Louisville, Colo.; Riverside, Calif., and Redmond, Wash.

If and when the transaction closes, Helsinki would become the European headquarters for the GE Medical Systems Information Technologies (GEMSIT of Milwaukee) business.

Instrumentarium President and CEO Olli Riikkala would become part of the global anesthesia and perioperative businesses for GEMS and GEMSIT. Riikkala’s duties and the fate of other Instrumentarium executives will be announced after the transaction is completed.

GE Chairman and CEO Jeffrey R. Immelt, in a prepared statement, called healthcare “an extremely important business for GE, and we plan to grow Instrumentarium even further by investing in new technologies to improve clinical workflow, physician confidence and patient outcomes.”

The GE tender offer comes at the close of an eventful year for Instrumentarium. The company spent approximately $140 million on July 4 to acquire Spacelabs Medical Inc. (Redmond, Wash.), paying $14.25 in cash per share to Spacelabs’ stockholders. Instrumentarium continued to operate its new critical care patient monitoring business as the Spacelabs Medical division.

The path for Cardinal and Syncor took many an unexpected turn over the six months since the deal’s announcement in June 2002. Most notable was Cardinal’s discovery during its due diligence of allegedly illegal payments made by top Syncor executives to foreign customers.

That revelation eventually led to the companies amending the terms of their original acquisition proposal. The final agreement reduced the conversion rate of each outstanding share of Syncor common stock from 0.52 to 0.47 of a Cardinal common share, with cash paid in lieu of fractional Cardinal Health common shares.

The payment probe focused on the business dealings of Syncor Chairman Monty Fu and his brother, Moses Fu, director of the Asia region for Syncor Overseas Ltd. Both men have been on paid leaves of absence since Nov. 6, 2002.

Last month, Syncor reached agreements with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding payments made to state-owned and private healthcare facilities in several foreign countries.

Under its DOJ settlement, Syncor subsidiary Syncor Taiwan Inc. agreed to plead guilty to one count under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and pay a $2 million fine related to improper payments to employees of state-owned healthcare facilities in Taiwan. The DOJ agreement is subject to court approval.

The SEC required Syncor — without admitting or denying any findings — to agree to a cease-and-desist order prohibiting further violations of the FCPA and pay a civil penalty of $500,000 relating to certain activities of Syncor’s foreign subsidiaries. Syncor’s board of directors also must appoint an independent consultant to review and make recommendations to improve Syncor’s internal controls, record keeping and financial reporting policies and procedures as they relate to the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA.

Also last month, Syncor reached a mutual agreement with Monty Fu for the chairman to leave the company and surrender to Syncor $2.5 million of Syncor common stock, an amount equal to the fines and penalties in Syncor’s agreements with the DOJ and SEC.

Monty Fu also has agreed to waive his right to receive a cash severance payment of approximately $2.1 million under the terms of his severance agreement with Syncor.

The business unit’s goal is admittedly conservative at 3 percent to 5 percent this year. Health Imaging — Kodak’s second-largest business with annual revenues of $2.3 billion — is looking to leverage its strengths in x-ray film capture, digital-image capture, systems integration, networking and archiving to spawn image-and-information products and services across the healthcare industry.

Dan Kerpelman

“One of the reasons I am very confident of our ability to grow in the short term is because our portfolio is extremely well balanced,” Health Imaging President Dan Kerpelman told Medical Imaging. “We play in a number of different segments and every one of those markets — with the exception of analog film capture — is growing.”

Health Imaging’s product portfolio includes digital radiography (DR), computed radiography (CR), laser imagers, picture archiving and communications systems (PACS), radiology information systems (RIS), dental imaging and services, and traditional mammography and x-ray film systems.

Even though analog film’s corner of the medical imaging market understandably declines with the advance of digital technologies, Kerpelman sees the decrease as a “controlled, slow march, 3 to 5 percent per year. Frankly, there is still enough [demand for analog film] left that we continue to invest in it and to do very well. It will never go away completely.”

At this point, digital imaging technologies account for approximately 60 percent of Health Imaging’s annual revenues. Digital capture is one of three market segments Kodak sees as having the greatest potential for Health Imaging in 2003.

“We are extremely strong at laser imaging, which is at the gateway between traditional analog-based image capture and digital capture,” Kerpelman said. “As more and more digital capture capability comes on line, the ability to process all these digital images — soft copy read, archiving, what have you — creates a wonderful market opportunity for laser imagers.”

Kodak also will target its DR and CR technologies for growth in 2003.

Second on the strategic list is information technology (IT). In Kodak’s case, the lead products include PACS.

“We are working to grow beyond PACS to a much broader view of information technology for healthcare,” Kerpelman said. “The obvious area is RIS. We also think about decision support; bringing to the healthcare professional whatever tools help make clinical pathway decisions, make management decisions about optimizing workflow and improve the quality of healthcare.”

The third growth area is equipment and technology service.

Looking internationally, both corporate Kodak and the Health Imaging division see China, Brazil and India as the best growth markets.

Kodak, he said, plans to push “much harder on the equipment, software and solution side — not just to sell into developing markets, but also to engineer, manufacture and make product decisions in those markets where we’re closer to the customer.”

Kerpelman described China as an excellent resource for “intellectual capital, brilliant engineers, good supply base, low cost opportunity for production in many cases and sourcing.” He added that participating in the country’s economy also becomes a “defensive” move for a foreign company, given that Chinese firms are developing their own healthcare technologies, which eventually will become exports.

Market factors
Kerpelman said Health Imaging has no major concern regarding reimbursement issues, expect for mammography. “It would be a nice thing if reimbursement rates were raised to reflect the true cost of the business and the value it provides in the early detection of breast cancer,” he added.

A digital mammography product for Health Imaging does not appear imminent in the short term. While Kodak remains “committed to digital mammography,” Kerpelman said, “which precise technology, which business model, etc., is something that we are not ready to say much more about, but we believe it is the future.”

Health Imaging, he added, is investing in digital mammography from an R&D standpoint and “nurturing some alliances, which we think are important,” but declined to elaborate specifically on Kodak’s plans.

Health Imaging was spared from any adverse effects from job cuts Kodak announced in October. The company said it would reduce its work force of 75,000 worldwide employees by 1,300 to 1,700 positions. Approximately 1,000 of those jobs were to be cut before the end of 2002.

Health Imaging is “more in an investment mode and growth mode right now,” Kerpelman said.

Now that he has been on board since June, Kerpelman has had time to set his own priorities.

With Health Imaging’s restructuring and cost control decisions of 2001, Kerpelman said the division “under-invested in a couple of areas, so we do have some catch-up to do,” specifically in DR. Health Imaging already has increased its R&D budget by 20 percent for 2003.

Kerpelman, 43, joined Kodak after serving for 18 months as general manager of GE Medical Systems’ (GEMS of Waukesha, Wis.) Global Diagnostic X-ray division. In that capacity, he was responsible for the marketing, manufacturing, engineering and sale of x-ray products, and the introduction of new technology in digital radiography and advanced applications.

He filled the vacancy left by J. Michael McQuade, who stepped down in January 2002 to become division vice president of 3M Co.’s (St. Paul, Minn.) newly formed Medical division.

Kerpelman’s tenure extended for 17 years at General Electric Co. (Fairfield, Conn.), spending most of his career at GEMS. He also held the positions of general manager for global quality; general manager of global service operations; region services manager; and manager of safety and regulatory engineering.

On Dec. 2, Varian announced its acquisition of medical x-ray tube reloader and distributor MRW GmbH (Dusseldorf, Germany) to grow its market presence in Europe.

That same day, Varian unveiled an agreement with Toshiba Corp., Medical Systems Co. (Tochigi, Japan) and Sanko Medical Systems (Tokyo) to operate a Varian-authorized x-ray tube service center in the People’s Republic of China.

MRW will become part of Varian’s X-Ray Products business (Salt Lake City, Utah) and will assemble replacement tubes in Dusseldorf from components produced at Varian’s Salt Lake City manufacturing facility.

The new facility will offer x-ray tubes and repair services throughout Europe in support of Varian’s x-ray products marketing group in Houten, The Netherlands.

“MRW has been successful in developing and implementing a reloading process to support the distribution of Varian’s X-ray tubes in Germany,” said Robert Hibdon, vice president and general manager of Varian X-Ray Products’ Interay Group (Charleston, S.C.), in a prepared statement. “By having inventory in Europe, as well as a responsive technical and marketing team, we expect to grow our x-ray business in the European Union.”

MRW sold more than $1 million of Varian product last year.

In Varian’s China venture, Sanko Medical Systems will operate the new tube facility. Varian manufactures a line of x-ray tubes designed specifically for the Toshiba scanners.

Toshiba, Sanko, and Varian plan to expand the relationship in the future to include a full range of Varian’s non-proprietary x-ray tube products. Varian will support the facility with materials and factory training. Varian’s tubes are used in applications, such as CT scanning, radiography and mammography.

Sanko Medical Systems is the exclusive distributor for Toshiba Medical Systems in China.

Platinum completed its purchases of Diagnostic Imaging (DI of Jacksonville, Fla.) from PSS World Medical Inc. (Jacksonville) and the Health Care Products (HCP of Mayfield Village, Ohio) division of Royal Philips Electronics (Best, Netherlands) in November 2002.

SourceOne said that it plans to maintain substantial operations in both Jacksonville and Mayfield Village.

Jerry C. Cirino will head SourceOne as CEO. Cirino served as executive vice president at the former Marconi Medical Systems Inc., where he headed the company’s global sales, service, marketing and operations. He also served as president of Marconi’s HCP division, which was sold to Philips in 2001.

Those conclusions are among the findings in a new report from market research firm Frost & Sullivan (San Jose, Calif.). The study also calculated mobile medical imaging revenues of $686 million in 2002 and forecast that total market revenues could reach $1.2 billion in 2008.

In the report, Frost & Sullivan analyst Antonio Garcia credited technological enhancements in MRI and CT for “an exponential increase in the scope of applications and also the imaging volume at facilities.”

The study added that the combination of “low or sporadic procedure throughput, dispersed populations and small medical imaging budgets has made shared mobile imaging services the ideal solution for many small-to-medium imaging operations.”

Even with the prospects of greater revenues in the mobile market, the report cites some potential market conditions that could infringe on that growth. Increasing costs of purchasing, maintenance and transporting systems, the study cautions, could drive leasing contract prices higher.

The combination of higher prices and rising procedure volume could make the outright ownership of fixed-site medical imaging equipment more attractive to small and medium-sized healthcare facilities and medical imaging centers.

The Frost & Sullivan study encourages service providers to “concentrate their resources on regions with the highest mobile imaging potential — namely, rural, semi-rural, and suburban community hospitals with sufficient patient throughput. Providing effective business support and value-added services will also help fortify the positions of companies.”

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that 75,000 new radiologic technologist (RT) positions will be created over the next eight years. Many of those jobs are available today, as U.S. hospitals report a 15 percent vacancy rate in RT positions, according to the American Hospital Association (AHA of Chicago).

While there are approximately 280,000 registered RTs in the United States, demand is greatest in larger university hospitals and rural-based healthcare centers, according to the survey released at the 88th Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA of Oak Brook, Ill.) in December. The nationwide study polled radiology departments in 101 hospitals and 11 outpatient imaging centers.

Eighty-eight percent of the university hospitals surveyed said they had an RT shortage, while 66 percent of hospitals with more than 300 beds indicated they had inadequate RT staffing. Sixty-eight percent of rural hospitals reported an RT shortage. Only 17 percent of outpatient centers polled said they could use more RTs.

The average salary for an RT in 2001 was $33,215, according to Jobscience.com, a career portal for healthcare professionals. RTs with more experience earned between $38,987 and $43,548 last year.

“We need to make RT an attractive profession,” said Bruce Reiner, M.D., the survey’s author. “There are not enough RTs and it will have a detrimental effect on the quality and timeliness of patient care.”

Reiner is director of research for Veteran Affairs Maryland Healthcare System (Baltimore) and an associate professor in the department of radiology at University of Maryland School of Medicine (Baltimore). He also currently serves as chairman-elect of the Society for Computer Applications in Radiology (SCAR of Great Falls, Va.).

The American Society of Radiologic Technologists (ASRT of Albuquerque, N.M.) has created a task force to address the RT shortage.

More than 1,400 hospitals and other healthcare facilities and 100 suppliers use either GHX’s or Medibuy’s Internet-based services as their purchasing source for healthcare products and supplies.

The new company would retain the Global Healthcare Exchange name and remain a privately held entity. The new company’s headquarters would be in Westminster under the direction of GHX CEO Michael Mahoney.

GHX was created in March 2000 by five healthcare companies — Johnson & Johnson (New Brunswick, N.J.), GE Medical Systems (Waukesha, Wis.), Baxter International Inc. (Deerfield, Ill.), Abbott Laboratories (Abbott Park, Ill.) and Medtronic Inc. (Minneapolis). One of GHX’s objectives was to generate only enough revenues to support the costs of the business.

Since then, GHX has added 11 more equity owners, such as Becton, Dickinson & Co. (Franklin Lakes, N.J.); Boston Scientific Corp. (Natick, Mass.); Cardinal Health Inc. (Dublin, Ohio); Guidant Corp. (Indianapolis); Siemens Medical Solutions USA Inc. (Malvern, Pa.) and Tyco International Ltd. (Pembroke, Bermuda), to name a few.

Medibuy’s customers include Premier Inc. (Charlotte, N.C.), HealthTrust Purchasing Group LP (Brentwood, Tenn.), and Quovadx Inc. (Englewood, Colo.). Medibuy — also conceived in 2000 — added Catholic Healthcare Partners (Cincinnati) to its customer roster last month.

HIMSS says its survey is something of a surprise, considering the well-known reluctance of some physicians to embrace IT.

Among the findings are that nearly all physicians’ offices have at least one desktop or laptop computer, and 72 percent have doctors who use handheld computers, such as personal digital assistants. Not so surprising was the revelation that only 20 percent of physicians’ offices use e-mail to communicate with patients about medical matters.

Other findings showed a significant penetration of electronic medical records (EMR) systems: 42 percent of respondents from internal medical practices, 33 percent from multispecialty practices and 30 percent from specialty practices, such as dermatology and gastroenterology, have EMR. Ninety-one percent of respondents indicated they would make an IT purchase this year, although 46 percent complained about high software costs and 36 percent thought hardware was too expensive for small practices.

There certainly was no lack of information on late-breaking discoveries about diet and personal care with some 3,700 presentations on cardiovascular disease. On the exhibit floor, vendors offered their state-of-the-art medical imaging technologies and devices in the name of healthier hearts and enhanced treaments.

GE Medical Systems (GEMS of Waukesha, Wis.) used the AHA meeting to launch its new e-Speed CT scanner. The system uses EBT (electron beam tomography) technology — based on GEMS’ acquisition last year of Imatron Inc. (So. San Francisco, Calif.) — to accelerate scanning time.

GEMS says the e-Speed can acquire 10 images during the time required to image a single frame using other CT scanners. With that speed, e-Speed is designed to image coronary artery motion in a new volumetric cine similar to cardiac catheterization.

GEMS also highlighted its recently introduced LightSpeed16 multislice CT scanner. The company, which launched LightSpeed16 in August, has accumulated approximately 125 installations of the system and has orders for some 300 units.

Siemens Medical Solutions (Malvern, Pa.) demonstrated expanded capabilities of its Acuson Sequoia echocardiography system and technological advances on its Acuson Cypress cardiovascular ultrasound system.

The Sequoia’s Signature II Option features include contrast pulse sequencing (CPS) for new levels of contrast detection and specificity, and increased spatial and temporal resolution of contrast agent detection. The option also includes the V7M mini-multiplane transesophageal (TEE) transducer for better image orientation compared to traditional biplane transducers.

Siemens also showcased its Somatom Sensation 16 CT scanner. The 16-slice system is one tool to help physicians diagnose heart disease in its early stages. Siemens also promoted its works-in-progress Somatom Sensation 10. The system also is designed for new CT applications.

Agfa HealthCare (Ridgefield Park, N.J.) offered its latest version of Impax for Cardiology, which is designed to provide information integration, image management and workflow optimization for cardiology and other facility departments.

The latest version enables a physician to use one workstation to view all cardiology and radiology images and perform cath lab measurements. Agfa’s Impax for Cardiology also provides connectivity to a hospital’s HIS (healthcare information system) for patient demographics and orders.

Biosound Esaote (Indianapolis) introduced its new digital archive module at AHA. SuperDam is designed for real-time digital review of clinical images, eliminating the need for tape and film storage. Physicians and sonographers can view an unlimited number of images on screen and immediately select a point in the exam to review.

Biosound says that images also can be compressed without appreciable loss of image quality and saved on the system or transferred to a network PC.

Up to three million CT scans are performed annually on U.S. children following such incidences as falls and playground accidents. About 2 percent of all children’s ER visits are for head injuries, and a CT scan is usually ordered. The majority of children with minor head injuries turn out to be fine, however, indicating that too many are needlessly exposed to radiation. Children are more sensitive to radiation than adults, yet there’s little guidance on when CT is necessary and when other exams will do.

New research indicates that hospitals need to be more vigilant about using child-appropriate radiation doses instead of higher adult doses. Dr. Tom Slovis, M.D., chief of pediatric imaging at Children’s Hospital of Michigan (Detroit), co-wrote an advisory explaining child-sized doses that was mailed by the National Cancer Institute (Bethesda, Md.) and Society for Pediatric Radiology (Houston) to 160,000 doctors in late summer. Shireen Atabaki M.D., of Children’s National Medical Center (Washington, D.C.), led the new head injury research.

Radiation from CT scans is relatively low and CT should not be omitted if a child is seriously ill or has suffered major trauma. However, the research suggests that radiation doses as low as 10 to 20 REMS may increase the risk of cancer decades later. Exposure is cumulative; children are likely to need numerous exams over a lifetime. Atabaki reported that doctors gave many reasons for scanning kids with minor injuries, including pressure from parents.

Atabaki joined with four other hospitals to study 1,000 patients: Strong Memorial Hospital (Rochester, N.Y.), Hasbro Children’s Hospital (Providence, R.I.), Mt. Sinai Hospital (New York City) and Inova Fairfax Hospital (Washington, D.C.). The facilities found that CT scans found an intercranial injury in just 65 children, or less than 7 percent.

Atabaki examined characteristics that predicted an injury and concluded CT scans are needed if a child has any of the following risk factors:

• skull fracture or deformity;
• bicycle-related injury;
• is dizzy, has a behavior change, or has problems with vision or other senses;
• scores less than 15 on a standard neurological exam.

Atabaki believes that some symptoms traditionally considered risk factors were inappropriate predictors about which children need CT scans.

The study states that simply adjusting the dose can lower children’s radiation absorption. A child given a typical adult-dose scan will absorb 6 REMS for a brain CT and 2 to 3 REMS for abdominal CT. Adjust the scanner to a pediatric setting, however, and the child will absorb 3 REMS from a brain CT and 0.6 REMS to the abdomen. Slovis advises parents to ask doctors whether a CT scan is the best exam for their child and whether it will be adjusted to a child dose.

In the third quarter, iCAD — the new entity formed in June from the merger of Howtek Inc. (Hudson, N.H.) and Intelligent Systems Software Inc. (ISSI of Boca Raton, Fla.) — also continued its restructuring efforts to eliminate what it termed “redundancies and inefficiencies” created by the merger. iCAD negotiated the resignations of two senior managers and announced plans to close its office in Boca Raton by the end of January 2003.

Both moves resulted in a one-time charge of $884,000 in the third quarter. iCAD also expects the changes to produce savings of approximately $770,000 annually in 2003 and future years.

Sales of CAD and medical imaging products in the third quarter increased to $1.3 million, compared with sales of medical imaging products of $590,231 and total sales of $1.1 million in the third quarter of 2001. iCAD posted a net loss of $1.6 million in the quarter, compared with a net loss of $548,205 in the year-ago quarter.

The third-quarter net loss in 2002 is due, in part, to an $884,000 non-recurring charge related to separation agreements with two former executives; closure of the company’s Boca Raton, Fla. office; and the consolidation of certain business functions to reduce redundancies and improve operating efficiencies.

For the nine-month period, sales — which include CAD sales since June 28 — totaled $2.8 million, compared with medical imaging of $1.6 million and total sales of $3.6 million in the same period of 2001. The nine-month net loss increased to $9.5 million, compared with a net loss of $2 million in the year-ago period.

This year’s nine-month net loss was due primarily to one-time, non-cash accounting charges associated with iCAD’s acquisition of ISSI and its decision to focus on medical imaging applications.

Medical imaging product sales increased due to the addition of the CAD product line through the acquisition of ISSI on June 28, 2002.

Compiled and analyzed by Health Care Markets Inc. (Hilton Head, S.C.), the stock indices above plot the performance of two market segments: Imaging Devices and Imaging Services. The indices are part of WDI’s healthcare database of more than 1,000 companies. For comparison we also plot the progress of the S&P 500. The indices began in January 1991 with a base of 100.

Pharmaceutical development company Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp. (San Diego) posted results for its first fiscal quarter, ending Sept. 30. Revenues slipped to $21,000, compared with $5 million in the first quarter of FY02. The company also posted a net loss of $9.4 million, compared with a net loss of $6.9 million in the year-ago quarter. Operating expenses decreased to $9 million, compared with $11.3 million the first quarter of FY02. During the quarter, Alliance completed a restructuring of operations to focus primarily on the commercial launch of its ultrasound imaging agent Imagent, which received FDA clearance in June 2002.

Del Global Technologies Corp. (Valhalla, N.Y.) posted greater sales in its fiscal year, ending Aug. 3. Sales rose 6 percent to $98.1 million, compared with $92.9 million in FY01. Del’s Medical Systems segment contributed 56 percent of Del’s total revenues for FY02. The company also posted a net loss of $12 million in FY02, compared with a net loss of $8.5 million in the previous fiscal year. The net loss in FY02 was due, in part, to a non-cash charge of approximately $7 million and approximately $200,000 in associated legal fees related to a class action litigation settlement. In the fourth fiscal quarter, Del also recognized a charge of $685,000 associated with the pending settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Computerized Thermal Imaging Inc. (CTI of Lake Oswego, Ore.) posted a gain in revenues in its first fiscal quarter of FY03. Revenues increased 28 percent to approximately $263,930, compared with $207,253 in the same quarter of FY02. The company also notched shipments of $584,000 for the quarter, a 14 percent increase from the year-ago quarter. The net loss for the quarter was $3.4 million, compared with a net gain of approximately $482,000 in the first quarter of FY02. The net gain in FY02 was due to a $3.35 million stock-based compensation adjustment to decrease expenses. Excluding the adjustment, CTI’s net loss for the first quarter of FY02 would have been $2.9 million.

Palatin Technologies Inc. (Cranbury, N.J.) has completed an offering that raised gross proceeds of $11.5 million through the private placement of securities to selected institutional and accredited investors. Palatin sold 94 million common shares and for every five shares purchased, investors also received a five-year warrant to purchase one share of common stock at a 25 percent premium to the purchase price per-share in the offering. Palatin trades under the ticker symbol PTN on the American Stock Exchange.

IDX Systems Corp. (Burlington, N.H.) will take a non-recurring charge of approximately $8.9 million to $9.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2002. The charge is related to asset impairment and rent obligations associated with the company’s Seattle office, which carries a lease agreement through 2005. IDX is moving to a new location in Seattle in February 2003 and has been unable to secure a sub-tenant to assume the existing lease. IDX also told investors that revenues for 2002 would be “at the upper end of the previously guided range of $442 million to $462 million.”

A total of 59,200 attendees trekked to McCormick Place, compared with 53,569 in last year, a gain of 11 percent. In 2000, RSNA tallied 60,443 people at the show.

The role of positron emission tomography (PET) and computed tomography (CT) technology may be quite significant role in cancer diagnostics and follow-up, as exhibited by three institutions’ studies.

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC of New York City) researched PET-CT in head and neck imaging and found that the fused images increased confidence in image interpretation. The study included 68 patients with head and neck cancer (156 lesions) and compared PET images with PET-CT fusion images.

The study found that PET-CT defined the lesion’s anatomical location in 65 (or 42 percent) of all lesions seen in the regular PET images. In 56 percent of equivocal PET findings (22 of 39), the additional information from PET-CT fusion images enabled reclassification as either benign or malignant.

Heiko Schöder, M.D., assistant attending physician at MSKCC, suggested that PET-CT would be the method of choice when PET is performed for staging and follow-up of patients with cancers in the head and neck.

A study at The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions (JHMI of Baltimore, Md.) rated PET-CT as a highly effective tool in diagnosing ovarian cancer with the ability to locate lesions and separate them from normal tissue.

Ten PET and 33 PET-CT examinations were performed on 28 patients. The report concluded that PET had a sensitivity of 100 percent and specificity of 50 percent, while PET-CT had sensitivity of 74 percent and a specificity of 100 percent. The report also concluded that PET-CT appeared to increase the specificity for detecting peritoneal metastases from ovarian cancer over PET alone.

At University Hospital (Zurich), a study found that PET-CT images were superior to all other imaging methods in the detection of tumors in patients with lung cancer.

Hans C. Steinert, M.D., assistant director of nuclear medicine, noted that PET-CT “precisely identifies and localizes even small metastases, thus avoiding further examinations.”