SuperSonic Imagine Highlights the Clinical Benefits of Real-Time ShearWave Elastography in the Middle East

AIX-EN-PROVENCE, FRANCE--(Marketwired - Jan 25, 2016) - SuperSonic Imagine (EURONEXT PARIS: SSI) (FR0010526814), the highly innovative ultrasound company, announced today its inaugural participation in the Arab Health Show January 25 - 28, in Dubai, to demonstrate the clinical benefits of ShearWave™ Elastography (SWE™) in assessing major diseases such as chronic liver disease and cancer of the breast, prostate and thyroid as well as in the domain of musculoskeletal imaging.

SuperSonic Imagine's Aixplorer^® is the only ultrasound system available that provides SWE in real-time. SWE is a quick, non-invasive exam that provides color coded maps and quantitative measurement of tissue stiffness. This information is used by physicians to help identify potentially malignant or other diseased tissue. As of today, over 300 peer-reviewed articles have demonstrated the clinical benefits of SWE in a wide range of clinical applications.

Liver diseases, such as chronic hepatitis C, chronic hepatitis B and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), have become a serious health issue for the Middle Eastern population. The World Health Organization estimates that there are at least 21.3 million hepatitis C virus (HCV) carriers in the Eastern Mediterranean countries, which is close to the number of carriers estimated in the Americas and Europe combined.¹

Over 70 publications have demonstrated the reliability and effectiveness of SWE to assess the severity of chronic liver disease including hepatitis B, C and NAFLD. Liver biopsy has traditionally been considered the standard for assessing liver fibrosis severity but this invasive method has major drawbacks, including significant incidence of morbidity, procedure and hospitalization costs, and clinical shortcomings^2-3.

In addition to chronic liver disease, the benefits of using the ShearWave technology for the diagnosis of breast lesions have been demonstrated in more than 85 peer-reviewed publications, including a multinational study of over 1,600 patients. By improving the accuracy of breast ultrasound, SuperSonic Imagine's SWE technology helps to reduce the number of negative breast biopsies.

SuperSonic Imagine will also showcase its new solution for microvascular visualization, Angio PL.U.S - Planewave UltraSensitive^™ imaging. Angio PL.U.S, provides a new level of microvascular imaging through significantly improved color flow sensitivity and spatial resolution. This information is instrumental in helping the diagnosis of cancerous tissues in areas such as the breast, liver, lymph nodes and thyroid as well as musculoskeletal pathologies.

"Physicians in the Middle East are very open to new technological innovations. Aixplorer is used in several hospitals in this region and our current users clearly appreciate the clinical benefits of Aixplorer in their daily work and its ability to help reduce biopsies," said Kurt Kelln, SuperSonic Imagine's Chief Business Officer.

"The Middle East has become a strategic territory and we are seeing a rapidly growing interest in our Aixplorer ultrasound system, particularly for its ability to non-invasively assess liver fibrosis and improve lesions diagnosis. We have strengthened our distributor network and we believe that the proven clinical benefits of our technology will position SuperSonic Imagine as a major player of ultrasound imaging in this market," explains Bernard Doorenbos, SuperSonic Imagine's Chief Executive Officer.

Additional information about the Arab Health Exhibition can be found here. The Company will be exhibiting at booth #SAD-57 and will be hosting live demonstrations at the booth throughout the meeting.

¹ Poustchi H, Sepanlou S, Esmaili S, Mehrabi N, Ansarymoghadam A. Hepatocellular carcinoma in the world and the middle East. Middle East J Dig Dis. 2010 Jan;2(1):31-41.
² Sampling error and intraobserver variation in liver biopsy in patients with chronic HCV infection. Regev A, Berho M, Jeffers LJ, Milikowski C, Molina EG, Pyrsopoulos NT, Feng ZZ, Reddy KR, Schiff ER. Am J Gastroenterol. 2002 Oct;97(10):2614-8. Sources of variability in histological scoring of chronic viral hepatitis. Rousselet MC, Michalak S, Dupré F, Croué
³ A, Bedossa P, Saint-André JP, Calès P; Hepatitis Network 49. Hepatology. 2005 Feb;41(2):257-64.

About SuperSonic Imagine

Founded in 2005 and based in Aix-en-Provence (France), SuperSonic Imagine is a company specializing in medical imaging. The company designs, develops and markets a revolutionary ultrasound system, Aixplorer^®, with an UltraFast^™ platform that can acquire images 200 times faster than conventional ultrasound systems. Aixplorer is the only system that can image two types of waves: ultrasound waves ensure excellent image quality and shear waves, which allow physicians to visualize and analyze the stiffness of tissue in a real-time, reliable, reproducible and non-invasive manner. This innovation, ShearWave^™ Elastography, significantly improves the detection and characterization of numerous pathologies in several applications including breast, thyroid, liver and prostate. SuperSonic Imagine has been granted regulatory clearances for the commercialization of Aixplorer in the main global markets. Over the past years, SuperSonic Imagine enjoyed the backing of several prestigious investors, among which Auriga Partners, Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners, Bpifrance, Omnes Capital and NBGI.

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