Canadian PACS firm ALI Technologies has unveiled the latest generation of its cine imaging capabilities for its capture and review workstations, an upgrade the vendor claims will increase the amount of information obtained from an ultrasound exam, and will provide added diagnostic tools for physicians.
ALI's cine playback application leverages ongoing performance improvements in central processing unit (CPU) speed, memory, and disk capacities. It also has the ability to export cine clips into Microsoft’s AVI format or Apple’s QuickTime format, according to the Richmond, British Columbia-based firm. This allows users to easily post images on a Web site or for inclusion in teaching files, according to ALI. To save storage space, video clips are archived in DICOM-compatible, JPEG-compressed multiframe format. This reduces the file size by a ratio of up to 30:1 and allows for fast access to diagnostic-quality images, according to ALI.
Cine capture is offered as an option on version 2.0 of the firm’s NewPort sonographer workstation. The playback tools are an optional feature available on UltraPACS 4.2 and are compatible with any DICOM-compliant PACS, according to the company.
NewPort supports the capture of up to 30 seconds of video at 30 frames per second, and users can initiate the clip before or after the capture button is pressed. In addition, UltraPACS 4.2 provides for the simultaneous display of up to four full-resolution (640 x 480 x 24 bit) clips.
The software also features adjustable start and end markers to allow the user to select the range of the clip being played. This feature is useful for long cine clips where the user wants to replay a portion of the event, according to ALI.
By AuntMinnie.com staff writersApril 28, 2000
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