Heidelberg Engineering Announces New Features For HRA 2 (10/16/06)

New value-added features enhance imaging technologies using Automatic Real-Time (ART™) software

VISTA, CALIFORNIA – October 16, 2006 – Heidelberg Engineering announces new software features for its Heidelberg Retina Angiograph II (HRA 2), a powerful imaging device used by specialists to detect and monitor abnormalities in the retina.

New features of the HRA 2 include:

• Wide Field Imaging provides real-time panoramic views of the retina in either angiography modes or non-invasive imaging modes.

• 55 Degree Lens adds to the currently available 30 degree lens for greater versatility.

• ART (Automatic Real-Time) software—a new method of “on-line” image processing which meshes single frame images into a higher quality composite image and can also smooth pan-retinal images to create a seamless wide field view of the entire fundus.

• Enhanced Autofluorescence Imaging using ART software brings crisp images of such evolving areas as geographic atrophy of AMD.

These new features are available on new equipment, or as a software upgrade package for existing equipment.

Background: The HRA 2 provides unmatched detail and contrast in angiography images of both the retina and the choroid. Unique simultaneous digital Fluorescein Angiography (FA) and Indocyanine Green Angiography (ICGA) images with three-dimensional resolution improve the diagnosis of retinal and choroidal pathologies such as diabetic retinopathy and AMD.

The HRA 2 is the preferred imaging device of retinal specialists in major research centers and in private practice. Laser imaging with the HRA 2 provides detail and perspective unseen in still photography, whether digital or film. The secret lies in the unique properties of confocal scanning laser technology which enable wavelength-selective imaging and rabid scanning speeds enabling 16-frame-per-second motion images.

With the HRA 2, dynamic high speed angiography—Motion pictures that capture the full cycle of dye uptake and clearing—gives doctors clear images of pathology, useful in diagnosis, tracking progression, and in client education. This non-invasive procedure uses autofluorescence, “red-free” and infrared imaging modes, to aid in early disease detection. ICGA enables a clear view into the choriod, eliminates the “fog” seen on standard photographs, images created in higher contrast, greater detail, help clinicians point details that are often obscured by white light flash photography techniques.

For more information visit the Heidelberg Engineering website at http://www.heidelbergengineering.com/; or contact the sales department at 1-800-931-2230.