New OCT Model Added to Spectralis Product Line – Spectral-Domain OCT with Eye Tracking (04/26/07)

Heidelberg Engineering Expands Spectralis™ Family of Products, Merging Spectral-Domain OCT and Eye Tracking Technology

VISTA, CALIFORNIA and HEIDELBERG, GERMANY– April 26, 2007 – Heidelberg Engineering GmbH announces the expansion of the Spectralis™ family of retinal imaging products, adding a more economical 2-mode SD-OCT to the existing 6-mode SD-OCT and 5-mode HRA. The expanded family now consists of:

- Spectralis OCT (2 modes)
- Spectralis HRA, (5 modes) and
- Spectralis HRA+OCT (6 modes)
“These are exciting times for eye care professionals—these new imaging devices provide reliable data that our predecessors never imagined,” explains Scott Cousins, MD, retinal specialist and Director of the Duke Center of Macular Diseases at the Duke Eye Center. “Heidelberg has further improved upon spectral domain OCT by incorporating image alignment know-how from their experience with the HRA and HRT products. As a result, the Spectralis OCT can lock onto a specific location of interest on the retina, and accurately relocate this site on subsequent exams. This feature will improve our ability to monitor disease progression and treatment response over time.”

Spectralis OCT offers two imaging modes (Spectral Domain-OCT and Infrared), while the Spectralis HRA+OCT includes four additional imaging modes (autofluorescence, red free imaging, fluorescein angiography and ICG angiography). The new model shares three key features with the earlier version: 40,000 A-Scans per second, TruTrack™ eye-tracking technology and Heidelberg Noise Reduction for image clarity.

“We designed the new Spectralis OCT in response to requests from clinicians at smaller eye care practices who wanted an imaging system that could grow with their practice. Spectralis OCT offers the flexibility to upgrade later,” said Adam Doherty, product manager. “The expanded product family gives the clinician a range of choices to fit the economic and clinical needs of the practice.”

The Spectralis instrument captures the OCT cross-sectional scan under constant guidance of one of five fundus imaging modalities. This helps ensure image registration and enables the instruments to precisely track change over time, an advantage over the technical limitations of time domain OCT. In addition, the instrument incorporates Heidelberg Noise Reduction (HNR) technology, a proprietary method of image enhancement which significantly improves image quality by eliminating unwanted optical noise in both fundus and OCT images. In the way that Dolby®* noise reduction has the ability to improve sound quality, HNR has the ability to improve image quality. This feature will be available on all three Spectralis models.

“Studies done at Ohio State University and at the University of California, San Diego demonstrated that first generation OCT systems suffer from an inability to precisely identify the scan location, leading to hidden artifact and possible misinterpretation,” noted Doherty. “By imaging the fundus simultaneous with SD-OCT, we constantly track eye movement, enabling us to avoid much of the motion artifact while accurately locating the OCT scan on the fundus image.”

The Spectralis™ Family will be introduced at the upcoming American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery meeting in San Diego, beginning April 27, 2007. The company expects to begin shipping the product in summer.

About Heidelberg Engineering GmbH

Headquartered in Heidelberg, Germany, this privately-held company is a leader in light-based medical devices for ophthalmic applications. The company designs, manufactures and markets a variety of instruments for application in retina, glaucoma and cornea diseases. U.S. corporate office is located in Vista, California.

*DOLBY is a registered trademark of Dolby Laboratories, Inc., which is not affiliated with Heidelberg Engineering