See also Imagent®.
June 19, 2003
Alliance Pharmaceutical Corporation and Photogen Technologies, Inc. announced that they have closed the previously announced transaction whereby Photogen has acquired all of the assets of Alliance related to medical imaging, including all manufacturing and marketing rights to Imagent (formerly Imavist). Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

June 03, 2002
Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp. announced that its ultrasound imaging agent, Imagent (perflexane lipid microspheres), has been approved for marketing by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The product will be marketed by Alliance in partnership with Cardinal Health, Inc., a provider of products and services to the healthcare industry, and inChord Communications, Inc., an independent healthcare communications company.

March 01, 2002
'Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp. announced that it has entered into a partnership with Bayer Schering Pharma AG, Germany and Cardinal Health Inc. for the marketing of Imavist (perflexane lipid microspheres), an ultrasound contrast agent. Schering licensed worldwide marketing rights for Imavist from Alliance in September 1997. The companies have agreed to modify this agreement to allow Alliance to increase its participation in the marketing of the product. Under the terms of the modified agreement, Alliance will have exclusive marketing rights to Imavist for cardiology indications in the U.S. for five years, and Schering will receive a royalty on product sales. Schering retains marketing rights for other indications in the U.S. and all indications in the rest of the world, subject to Alliance's option to obtain additional indications and territories. Under certain circumstances, Schering would co-market the product at the end of five years. Concurrently, Alliance has entered into a five-year exclusive agreement with Cardinal Health Inc., a provider of products and services to the health-care industry, to assist in the marketing of Imavist.'

October 08, 2001
'Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp. announced a clinical study to take place at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, using Alliance's Imavist (AF0150) contrast agent with ultrasound imaging to improve detection of prostate cancer. The study, which will involve 300 adult men with suspected prostate cancer, is being funded by the U.S. Department of Defense under a competitive grant awarded to Thomas Jefferson University for investigators at Jefferson's Prostate Center. Imavist is being developed jointly by Alliance and Bayer Schering Pharma AG Germany, and is awaiting final approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.'

August 21, 2000
Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp. announced that it has received a letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stating that the FDA has completed its review of the New Drug Application (NDA) for Imagent (AF0150), and found it to be approvable. Imagent, an ultrasound contrast agent, is being developed jointly by Alliance and Bayer Schering Pharma AG, Germany

Notes:
The manufacturer is pursuing additional radiology indications such as ultrasound imaging of the prostate and liver, and clinical trials are currently being conducted to evaluate Imagent in conjunction with ultrasound imaging for use in the detection of prostate cancer. During the course of its development, the brand name for this product has changed from Imagent to Imavist back to Imagent. Initially reported on by the manufacturer as Imagent and then, between August 2000 and March 2002, as 'Imavist (formerly Imagent).' The manufacturer's 06/03/02 press release announcing FDA approval refers to the product as 'Imagent (formerly Imavist),' and the approval notice and monograph posted at the FDA site refers to the product as Imagent. Jointly developed by Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp and Bayer Schering Pharma AG, (Germany). Source: PR Newswire - 10/10/96, 03/31/98, 10/13/99, 03/13/01, 10/08/01; FDA approvals - 05/31/02; Alliance Pharmaceutical press release - 06/03/02.

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M-mode (Motion-mode) ultrasound shows the motion of cardiac structures. M-mode echocardiography records the amplitude and rate of motion of a moving structure in real time by repeatedly measuring the distance of the object from the single transducer at a given moment. The single sound beam is transmitted and reflected signals are displayed as dots of varying intensities, creating lines across the screen. It yields a one-dimensional image, sometimes called an 'ice pick' view of the heart.
M-mode echocardiography is used to detect valvulopathies (calcifications, etc.) and cardiomyopathies (dyskinesis, aneurysm, etc.).

See also Bicycle Stress Echocardiography, Transthoracic Echocardiography, and Transesophageal Echocardiography.

(PACS) A system used to communicate and archive medical imaging data, mostly images and associated textural data generated in a radiology department, and disseminated throughout the hospital. A PACS is usually based on the DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) standard.

The main components in the PACS are: acquisition devices where the images are acquired;
Acquisition devices, which acquire their data in direct digital format, like a MRI system, are most easily integrated into a PACS.
Short term archives need to have rapid access, such as provided by a RAID (redundant array of independent disks), whereas long term archives need not have such rapid access and can be consigned, e.g. to optical disks or a magnetic.
High speed networks are necessary for rapid transmission of imaging data from the short term archive to the diagnostic workstations. Optical fibre, ATM (asynchronous transfer mode), fast or switched Ethernet, are examples of high speed transmission networks, whereas demographic textural data may be transmitted along conventional Ethernet.
Sophisticated software is a major element in any hospital-wide PACS. The software concepts include: preloading or prefetching of historical images pertinent to current examinations, worklists and folders to subdivide the vast mass of data acquired in a PACS in a form, which is easy and practical to access, default display protocols whereby images are automatically displayed on workstation monitors in a prearranged clinically logical order and format, and protocols radiologists can rapidly report worklists of undictated examinations, using a minimum of computer manipulation.

(RIS) Radiology information system means a computer system that stores and processes the information for a radiology department and can be linked to the hospital information system.
The principal purpose of a RIS consists of taking over the general functions of the administration inclusive planning, monitoring and communication of all data regarding patients and its investigations in the radiology. The correct images should reach, at the correct time, the correct users. For this reason the RIS must contain a workflow management in order to simplify and steer the data flow at the individual view stations or devices (laser cameras etc.). The Radiology Information System is optimally complemented with a Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS).

RIS Tasks: