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(July 20, 2009 - EPIX Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that, in light of the company's lack of capital and inability to obtain additional financing or consummate a strategic transaction, it has entered into an Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors, effective immediately, in accordance with Massachusetts law).
EPIX has been a specialty pharmaceutical firm developing targeted contrast agents to improve the capability of MRI as a diagnostic tool for a variety of diseases. Gadofosveset trisodium (formerly MS-325, Vasovistâ„¢, now ABLAVARtâ„¢), is an injectable intravascular contrast agents designed for multiple vascular imaging applications, including peripheral vascular disease and coronary artery disease. EPIX conducted a pivotal Phase III trial for the detection of peripheral vascular disease, as well as a Phase II feasibility trial for coronary artery disease diagnosis.
To ensure rapid development and adoption of gadofosveset trisodium into clinical practice upon regulatory approval, EPIX pursued an aggressive product development plan and commercialization strategy. The Company established an exclusive, worldwide sales and marketing agreement with Bayer Schering Pharma AG. EPIX also established corporate collaborations with GE Healthcare, Philips Medical Systems and Siemens Medical Systems, the three leading MRI manufacturers, which together account for approximately 80 percent of the MRI machines installed worldwide.
EPIX had other MRI contrast agents under development, most significantly a novel prototype blood clot agent (EP-2104R). Potential clinical applications for this type of agent include detection of deep venous thrombosis, pulmonary embolism and blood clots in the coronary and carotid arteries. Currently, there is no high resolution imaging technique to directly visualize blood clots in patients with suspected cardiovascular disease.

From Hitachi Medical Systems America Inc.;
Hitachi expanded its portfolio with the Echelon™ 1.5T. The MRI scanner combines a compact magnet and a scalable 8-channel RF system with high-performance gradients and slew rate to select short echo times, small field of views, high matrices and thin slices. Standard features of the Echelon MRI system include higher-order active shim, RAPID (parallel imaging for use on brain MRI, body, cardiovascular imaging, and orthopedic coils), multiple coil ports, and an advanced reconstruction engine.

A measurement technique for double contrast sequences, whereat echoes that determines the image resolution are used in both raw data matrices.

Echo spacing is the distance in time between the echoes in multiple echo sequences like, e.g. echo planar imaging, fast spin echo. A short echo space produces compact sequence timing and less image artifacts. The shorter the rise time, the faster the gradients and therefore the echo spacing. Gradients with a shorter echo spacing will have a better resolution and more slices per TR.

See also Fast Spin Echo.

From Toshiba America Medical Systems Inc.;
the EXCELART is a superconducting whole body MRI system with a short wide-bore magnet, operating at 1.5 T. It features powerful high-speed gradients with a revolutionary gradient acoustic noise reduction system: Pianissimo. The dramatic reduction of gradient acoustic noise by Pianissimo greatly enhances patient comfort during exams. The standard array platform and a wide range of array coils ensure excellent images. A powerful 64-bit RISC-based computer system and newly developed array processor realize high productivity.