12/15/2003
For Immediate Release
AIRIS Elite Debuts at RSNA Annual Meeting
CONTACT:
Sheldon Schaffer
Hitachi Medical Systems America
1959 Summit Commerce Park
Twinsburg, Ohio 44087
800.800.3106 or 330.425.1313 Ext. 5447
330.425.1410 Fax
schaffers@hitachimed.com
www.hitachimed.com
Twinsburg, Ohio – December 15, 2003 -- Hitachi Medical Systems America, Inc. (HMSA) highlighted a successful appearance at the Radiology Society of North America’s annual meeting with the unveiling of its newest Open MRI system, AIRIS® Elite. Soon to be shipping in 2004, the Elite continues upon HMSA’s tradition of innovative technology, providing technologists with clinical capabilities that rival those of many high-field closed systems.
AIRIS Elite’s outstanding magnet design, which incorporates Hitachi’s signature asymmetric two-post open architecture, helps deliver a 0.3T field strength in a vertical orientation with extraordinarily high homogeneity. It incorporates a powerful gradient system, multi-channel active shimming, Hitachi’s exclusive Scalable DualQuad RF receiver and advanced capabilities like RAPID and RF fat saturation. The industry-best Hitachi table is further enhanced in AIRIS Elite by a new design that preserves the unique 3 axis motorized control, and now offers lateral movement range with the table extended in the magnet bore. The imaging power and enhanced flexibility supported by these new features provide clinical benefits in throughput and clinical capability.
“The abilities of AIRIS Elite transcend what some have come to expect of mid-field diagnostic imaging,” stated Sheldon Schaffer, Vice-President and General Manager of HMSA, “It claims an ‘advanced mid-field’ status all its own. We are very pleased to bring to our customers products like the AIRIS Elite, which incorporates important technical advances into the ease and patient-preferred comfort of Open MR in order to provide real clinical benefits in image quality, throughput and capability.”
Hitachi Medical Systems America, Inc. markets premium, high performance magnetic resonance imaging products of Hitachi Medical Corporation, Tokyo, Japan. These include the AIRIS® Elite, the Altaire™ high-field performance MR system and the AIRIS® II MR system with advanced permanent magnet technology. The company has more than 1,300 Open Magnetic Resonance Imaging systems installed throughout the United States and over 3,000 Open MRI systems installed worldwide HMSA first established a leadership position in the medical industry with Open MRI systems and has expanded their modality offerings to include ultrasound, positron emission tomography, and optical topography. Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company, with approximately 320,000 employees worldwide and annual sales of over $60 billion. For more information about HMSA's complete line of imaging products and services, please visit www.hitachimed.com.
