Syntermed Announces New Products and Agreements at Society of Nuclear Medicine Annual Meeting

Syntermed, Inc., a leading nuclear medicine imaging and informatics software company, released today three new clinical diagnostic applications for neurologists and cardiologists benefiting individuals with dementia, temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), and heart failure. The NeuroQ(TM) 3.0 upgrade analyzes PET brain scans to improve diagnosis of all types of dementia and track the progression of the disease. EQuAL(TM), a new application with NeuroQ, helps determine before surgery, the likelihood a patient will be seizure-free following surgery for TLE. SyncTool(TM), the newest diagnostic tool in the Emory Cardiac Toolbox(TM), analyzes the benefits of cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) in heart failure patients. The company introduced the products at the Society for Nuclear Medicine (SNM) annual meeting. Nuclear medicine experts from UCLA and Emory University made several presentations at SNM citing clinical studies supporting the diagnostic value of these software solutions.

Syntermed also announced three key licensing and distribution agreements. Cardinal Health will continue its exclusive distribution rights of NeuroQ within the radiopharmaceutical industry, and its customers will be able to upgrade to NeuroQ 3.0. Phillips Medical Systems will also continue its distribution of NeuroQ 3.0 version in their next release of EBW(R) PET workstation.

GE Healthcare, will expand its current distribution of the Emory Cardiac Toolbox on its Xeleris(TM) Workstations to include SyncTool.

Michael Lee, Chairman and CEO of Syntermed commented, “We believe our product upgrades will set new standards in nuclear imaging software for PET brain scans and SPECT cardiac imaging. Our on-going collaboration with the leaders in nuclear medicine at Emory University and UCLA allows us to deliver advanced imaging with improved clinical benefits.”

Mr. Lee concluded, “Twelve years ago we launched the Emory Cardiac Toolbox, today this technology is in nearly half of all nuclear medicine labs nationwide. Distribution partnerships with industry giants such as GE, Philips, Siemens, Hitachi, McKesson, and Cardinal Health will continue to broaden our market reach. Syntermed’s software on their equipment or as part of their service offering is testimony to the quality of our products and our leadership position.”

NeuroQ 3.0 More Accurately Differentiates Dementias

NeuroQ 3.0 is the only application that automatically identifies and quantifies the differences between two FDG-PET brain studies of the same patient. Other programs typically only compare a patient’s scan to a limited database of normal whole brain scans. NeuroQ can reslice brain images to create a more exact image and to extensively analyze regional abnormalities that are characteristic of the many types of dementia, including Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB).

Because of its unique functionality, NeuroQ 3.0 provides a more accurate way to evaluate changes in a patient’s brain, and assist with the diagnosis and differentiation of the types of dementia, even in early stages of the disease. An accurate differential diagnosis has significant clinical implications for treatment, including selection of the most appropriate drugs for maximizing benefits and minimizing potential adverse effects.

A New Option on the NeuroQ Platform

Included on the platform is EQuAL, a unique neuro imaging analysis tool for brain PET scans of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). As documented in peer-reviewed medical literature, EQuAL analysis of PET scans provides a more accurate way to determine in advance of TLE surgery, the likelihood that a patient will become seizure-free after surgery. EQuAL is included in the NeuroQ 3.0 platform.

Daniel Silverman, M.D., Ph.D., head of Neuro Nuclear Imaging at UCLA Medical Center developed the original NeuroQ software, marketed since 2005, its upgrade and EQuAL.

Dr. Silverman said, “Our goal with NeuroQ was to create neuro imaging display software which would be easy to use in a clinical setting, and yet produce sophisticated quantitative output incorporated into the images and regional data automatically displayed.”

SyncTool Changing the way Heart Failure is Evaluated, Treated, and Monitored

SyncTool provides cardiologists with an objective and timely measure of left ventricular (LV) dyssynchrony in heart failure patients. Once the G-SPECT image study is completed, results are available in less than one minute. Now with the introduction of SyncTool, cardiologists, who previously used TDI Echocardiography to analyze LV dyssynchrony, have an adjunctive tool to confirm diagnosis and more accurately determine which heart failure patient will benefit from cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT).

SyncTool is based on multiharmonic phase analysis (MHPA) developed by E.V. Garcia, PhD, and J. Chen, MD, at Emory University’s nuclear medicine department, and is exclusively licensed to Syntermed.

Both NeuroQ 3.0 and SyncTool are user-friendly and can be operated on any nuclear medicine computer system or PC/MAC that supports the Windows operating system. Each is FDA cleared and provides quantitative analysis and image displays of scans.

About Syntermed, Inc.

Syntermed is a leading nuclear medicine imaging and informatics software company. The privately owned Atlanta-based company, established in 1999 as a spin-off of research and technology from Emory University and Georgia Tech, transformed the nuclear imaging field by being the first to offer PET and SPECT software programs untethered from imaging hardware. Syntermed’s software solutions are licensed to medical imaging companies including GE Healthcare, Siemens Medical Solutions, Philips Medical Systems, Hitachi Medical Systems, McKesson Information Solutions, Cardinal Health, MedImage, Mediso, Medx, Segami, and Thinking Systems. The company’s products are also sold directly to diagnostic imaging centers and nuclear cardiologists. Its software powers more than 40% of the nuclear cardiology labs in the United States. All its software are compatible with any nuclear medicine workstation or personal computer system or PC/MAC that supports the Microsoft(R) Windows operating system. Syntermed also provides the deployment services used by investigators to commercialize their intellectual property.

More information about Syntermed can be found at www.syntermed.com.