Nov 10 2014
ASX listed Resonance Health (ASX:RHT) officially launched an innovative new diagnostic imaging solution for liver patients worldwide at the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases annual conference in Boston this week.
HepaFat-Scan technology was developed in collaboration with the University of Western Australia, and uses magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners in a non-invasive manner, to measure the concentration of fat in the human liver.
This is the first and only technology of its kind to obtain regulatory clearances in the USA - FDA, Europe - CE Mark, and Australia - TGA and has also just won the coveted Western Australian Innovation of the Year award at the 2014 WA Innovator of the Year Awards.
Chief Scientist Professor Tim St Pierre said HepaFat-Scan addresses the growing prevalence of fatty liver disease in Australia and many other countries, as well as an unmet need for non-invasive diagnostic tools to diagnose and monitor liver disease.
"It reports volumetric fraction of fat in the liver, a measure that can be directly compared to a volumetric biopsy fat fraction measurement, providing patients and doctors with a more accurate diagnostic tool as part of a structured intervention protocol or clinical research trial."
Compared with the traditional gold standard for clinical assessment of liver fat - histopathological assessment, HepaFat-Scan is a much more objective and non-invasive MRI based method with greater reproducibility and significantly reduced sampling error.
Hence, clinicians and patients can greatly benefit from an accurate HepaFat-Scan measurement of liver fat to monitor and manage efficacy of treatment, and to provide prognoses for fatty liver disease and associated multiple hepatic and systemic disorders and many other related diseases.
All image analysis and reporting services are provided from Resonance Health's ISO 13485 certified Perth based facility and are utilised by hospitals in over 20 countries, and in international clinical trials.
SOURCE Resonance Health