Heidelberg Engineering Reaches New Milestone; Celebrates Manufacture and Delivery of its 2,000th Heidelberg Retina Tomograph II.Business Editors and Health/Medical Writers NOTE TO MEDIA: Photo is available in a Smart News Release(TM) on Business Wire's Home Page at www.businesswire.com and at www.newstream.com CARLSBAD, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)--May 2, 2002 George Spaeth, MD, Director of the Glaucoma Service at Wills Eye Hospital, Philadelphia, Has Taken Receipt of This Record-Setting Instrument Heidelberg Engineering, the leading developer of scanning laser ophthalmic devices, announced today that George Spaeth, MD, director of the Glaucoma Service at Wills Eye Hospital, Philadelphia, has taken delivery of its 2,000th Heidelberg Retina Tomograph II (HRT HRT abbr. hormone replacement therapy Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) Also called estrogen replacement therapy, this controversial treatment is used to relieve the discomforts of menopause. II). The need for diagnostic tools like the HRT II is great because glaucoma is still the leading cause of preventable blindness in the United States. Three million Americans have glaucoma, and only half of them are aware of it, according to the Glaucoma Research Foundation. Most patients will not experience any symptoms until some degree of vision loss has already occurred -- and that damage is totally irreversible. Glaucoma is not an easily diagnosed disease. Doctors cannot make a reliable diagnosis based upon a single examination -- because there is too much variation in optic nerve optic nerve: see vision. structures among patients. The most reliable way of determining if changes are occurring is to use the HRT II to take a baseline 3-D Topography image of the optic nerve and then compare it with similar images taken during a minimum of two, and preferably three, follow-up examinations. The beauty of the Topographic Change Analysis on the HRT II is that it uses pure "interpolation interpolation In mathematics, estimation of a value between two known data points. A simple example is calculating the mean (see mean, median, and mode) of two population counts made 10 years apart to estimate the population in the fifth year. free" data and is totally objective. The HRT II enables a doctor to track the smallest glaucomatous changes by detecting structural changes in the patient's optic nerve head and nerve fiber layer The nerve fiber layer (or layer of nerve fibers or stratum opticum) is formed by the expansion of the fibers of the optic nerve; it is thickest near the porus opticus, gradually diminishing toward the ora serrata. often before changes to the patient's vision have occurred, thus allowing treatment to begin quicker. Dr. Spaeth, who purchased one of the original HRT units in 1994, said, "Blindness from glaucoma is usually the result of damage to the optic nerve. The pattern of optic nerve damage is at the heart of diagnosing glaucoma correctly. Change in the optic nerve is at the core of treating glaucoma correctly. The HRT is a user-friendly way of defining the pattern of the optic nerve and quantifying changes that occur. As with every diagnostic test, HRT findings must be evaluated critically by a knowledgeable person. However, the information provided will become ever more valuable in trying to eliminate glaucoma as the leading cause of irreversible blindness." John Hawley, Heidelberg Engineering's vice president, added, "By reaching this goal, we have succeeded not only in manufacturing and installing our 2,000th HRT II, but also in validating the company's core philosophy of always using the best science backed by extensive clinical research. The HRT II rapidly rose to prominence in the marketplace because the HRT technology was already proven; it has been validated by more than 350 peer-reviewed clinical papers and its results have been replicated in many research centers around the world." The HRT was first developed in 1991 for use primarily in the research setting. Extensive research led to the development of the HRT II -- used mostly in the clinical setting. An accurate diagnosis of glaucoma cannot be made without progression data, which is generally gathered over several years. One cannot expedite this process either by relying on fewer examinations or shortening the time between tests. The time it takes to diagnose glaucoma is dictated by the disease, which progresses slowly. It can take several years to make a definitive diagnosis. About Heidelberg Engineering With headquarters in Dossenheim, Germany, Heidelberg Engineering has been developing retinal imaging technologies for use in research and clinical practice for more than a decade. In 1991, the company introduced the Heidelberg Retina Tomograph (HRT), the first laser scanning system for routine glaucoma examinations. Its more recent products have included the Heidelberg Retina Tomograph II (HRT II), Heidelberg Retina Angiograph (HRA HRA Health Reimbursement Arrangement HRA Health Risk Assessment HRA Housing and Redevelopment Authority HRA Human Resources Administration HRA Health Reimbursement Account HRA Housing Revenue Account ) and Heidelberg Retina Flowmeter See flow meter. (HRF HRF histamine-releasing factor; homologous restriction factor. HRF homologous restriction factor. ). The HRA produces high-quality Fluorescein fluorescein /flu·o·res·ce·in/ (fldbobr-res´en) a fluorescing dye; its sodium salt is used as a tracer in retinal angiography and as a diagnostic aid for revealing corneal trauma and fitting contact lenses. and ICG ICG indocyanine green. angiographies simultaneously, and is the only system that can clearly identify "feeder vessels" in the treatment of age-related macular degeneration Age-related macular degeneration (ARMD) Degeneration of the macula (the central part of the retina where the rods and cones are most dense) that leads to loss of central vision in people over 60. . The HRF measures the retinal microcirculation microcirculation /mi·cro·cir·cu·la·tion/ (-sir?ku-la´shun) the flow of blood through the fine vessels (arterioles, capillaries, and venules).microcirculato´ry mi·cro·cir·cu·la·tion n. , which may have important future applications. The company maintains offices in Carlsbad and Smithfield, R.I. For more information, visit the Heidelberg Engineering Web site at www.HeidelbergEngineering.com. Note: A Photo is available at URL URL in full Uniform Resource Locator Address of a resource on the Internet. The resource can be any type of file stored on a server, such as a Web page, a text file, a graphics file, or an application program. : http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/photo.cgi?pw.050202/bb10 |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion