TeraRecon is used to innovating ahead of market demand. Founded in 1997 by Japanese radiologists at a time when visualization of the heart was rudimentary by today´s standards, four years later it developed the first-ever independent client-server solution architecture for advanced visualization. Before the first decade of this century was over, it brought to market its flagship suite of applications iNtuition, an advanced visualization software that runs entirely on that earlier client-server architecture without the need for a physical workstation. Now on its fourth iteration (version 4.4.13 was released in 2017), iNtuition enables workflow enhancements to the original platform – and nowhere is this more evident than in its cardiac imaging packages.

In the cardiac space, TeraRecon offers CT, MR, and TAVR imaging solutions that empower cardiologists and radiologists to analyse cases and plan procedures efficiently. The range of targets encompasses everything from routine imaging, cardiac MRI evaluation, and calcium scoring to TAVI, aortic surgery, and congenital heart disease.

“Over 15 years, I have seen the company´s product transform from a simple 3D viewer of cardiac image to a tool for high-level quantitative analysis. It lets cardiologists help other physicians by allowing them to access the data quickly, pull it in front of them, and offer their opinion almost instantaneously,” says in a video testimony Michael Poon, chief of non-invasive cardiac imaging at Lenox Hill Hospital.

Thanks to the years-long relationship between TeraRecon and Lenox Hill, the two are collaborating closely to develop new software for mitral valve clipping. Indeed, such partnerships are a crucial element of the company´s approach to developing market-leading solutions tuned to users´ evolving needs.

“This type of bi-directional interaction really helps improve the product and makes us more productive,” says Poon. As evidence of the former, iNtuition was praised in a 2017 Journal of Endovascular Therapy comparative study assessing the accuracy of preinterventional measurements using centerline analysis applications. The research noted that TeraRecon had the highest centreline accuracy and yielded the best results in centreline-based measurements of diameters and lengths.

In particular, TeraRecon´s CT Cardiac offers features such as 2D, 3D, and 4D structural heart review, pre-processed structural heart anatomy, coronary evaluation for plaque, stenosis, and curvature, structural calcium scoring tool for valves, cardiac functional and volumetric analysis, and structural heart segmentation for pre-operative assessment.

For its part, the MR Cardiac package comes packed with features such as volumetric and functional analysis with auto contouring, MR flow visualization and quantification, delayed enhancement, T1 and T2 mapping, and cardiac cycle color motion map display.

The company´s cardiac software solutions, along with the rest of its clinical packages – including for whole body, chect, head and neck, liver and lung segmentation, and planning for EVAR and TAVR, among others – form part of a global install base of over 5,000 and more than 52,000 active client software access points across 74 countries. All of the packages are available either as standalone systems or as part of an enterprise-wide imaging infrastructure. Whether deployed a la carteor as part of an enterprise-wide imaging infrastructure, their aim is always the same: empowering physicians.

As recently as last December, TeraRecon added to its name new AI-enabled key-workflow subscription offerings. Insofar as the MR Cardiac package, it delivers AI-generated results with an embedded communication loop between the physician and the AI, which can be further adjusted by the user to produce new results and reports. The upgrade has earned Poon´s blessing: “Physicians will welcome the AI component to help with processing higher-complexity cases and process the data, as the field of cardiology itself becomes more and more complex.”

A pioneer in medical imaging workflows since the late 90s, TeraRecon offers a suite of combinable advanced visualization solutions meant to meet every clinical need for vital body regions. Its CT and MR cardiac packages are considered the gold standard in cardiac and vascular imaging.

By Gergana Koleva