MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Dec. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- ZONARE Medical Systems, a developer of next generation ultrasound technology, debuted several new clinical software advances at the recent Radiology of North America (RSNA) conference, the world's largest radiology congress. Based on revolutionary Zone Sonography(TM) technology, the new advances include Compound Harmonics, Virtual Apex Array, Auto-Dop Trace and IQ Scan. The software upgrades are available for ZONARE's z.one ultrasound system, the world's first and only Convertible Ultrasound(TM) system.

"Zone Sonography technology continues to yield significant new innovations which make our z.one ultrasound system a tremendous economic and clinical value," said Arthur Fleischer, M.D., chief of diagnostic sonography and professor, Department of Radiology and Radiological Services, Vanderbilt University Medical Center. "We have been extremely satisfied with our system, especially with the ability to convert from a full-featured, cart-based unit to a premium compact system. The steady stream of clinical innovations introduced by ZONARE is testimony to the power of this breakthrough technology."

ZONARE has brought the first Convertible Ultrasound platform to the industry with superb image quality at a substantial price to value ratio. Clinicians are able to instantly convert the z.one platform from a full- featured, cart-based system into a premium compact, ultrasound system with all the performance of substantially larger and more expensive ultrasound units, yet, with greater portability and clinical flexibility than conventional compact systems.

Combining a fundamentally new advance in ultrasound, Zone Sonography technology, coupled with the z.one platform's radically new physical design, provides the maximum flexibility offering significant clinical and workflow solutions for a wide variety of customer challenges. The z.one platform's Zone Sonography software-based architecture ensures that its performance will increase as improvements in processing power become available. This allows for fast, convenient upgrades in clinical capabilities, keeping clinicians at the forefront of diagnostic capabilities as well as protecting their investment.

The most recent upgrades provide significant advances in clinical capabilities. Compound Harmonics combines both the fundamental and harmonic frequency components allowing improved penetration versus harmonics alone. This results in dramatically improved contrast resolution without compromising frame rate. With Virtual Apex Array, the image area is increased up to 25 percent compared to a conventional sector format by visualizing anatomy at the transducer face for a wider field of view. This means greater anatomic information and increased color sensitivity.

As part of ZONARE's Auto-Opt with ZST package, Auto-Dop Trace provides realtime, automatic Doppler measurements independent of pulse wave gain. The resulting data is automatically integrated into the calculation package. IQ Scan allows retrospective processing on stored echo data for both still images and cine loops. The data set, Channel Domain Memory, includes all of the raw data from the ultrasound signal allowing the clinician full access to accurate post processing and customized optimization of that data. No other ultrasound technology provides this capability.

The advanced software release also includes increased color Doppler sensitivity on the C5-2 transducer for abdominal and abdominal vascular imaging. In addition, the release provides new OB calculation reports, graphs and printing through a USB port or Ethernet connection.

"Zone Sonography technology is enabling a wide range of technical and clinical advances which we believe will greatly benefit our customers and their patients," said Donald Southard, president and CEO of ZONARE. "Additionally, all of these software upgrades can be downloaded over the internet, another industry first."

About ZONARE Medical Systems

ZONARE Medical Systems, Inc. designs, develops, and manufactures premium compact performance ultrasound solutions, which combine revolutionary technology with an innovative physical design. Zone Sonography technology, ZONARE's unique patented approach to ultrasound imaging, is focused on bringing the highest performance to all clinical settings, leading to advanced diagnostic capabilities, more cost effective operation and increased value to providers. For more information, please visit http://www.zonare.com/.

CONTACT: Laurie Hallwyler of ZONARE Medical Systems, 650-248-9081, or
lhallwyler@zonare.com

Web site: http://www.zonare.com/