Panasonic's CardioHealth Station Improves Patient Outcomes Through Early Diagnosis in Primary Care

DUSSELDORF, Germany, November 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

Panasonic announced today the European availability of its innovative ultrasound tool for personalized preventive medicine, the CardioHealth Station, at renowned medical trade fair MEDICA in Dusseldorf, Germany (booth 9E47).  The device, which is FDA cleared and recently secured its CE registration mark, is designed to assist medical professionals in making a quick and valuable assessment of cardiovascular health. The test takes less than five minutes from the time the scan starts to the delivery of a report. The CardioHealth Station is now available in Europe having obtained all necessary regulatory approvals.

Dr. Davide Vanoli, Umeå Heart Centre, University of Northern Sweden, welcomes the availability of the CardioHealth station in primary care: "This device enables healthcare professionals to assess cardiovascular risk in a primary care setting, taking it out of the hospital. Patients can be assessed earlier in the treatment pathway, which leads to enhanced patient outcomes, and a more accurate assessment of patient risk than looking at risk factors alone."

Recently published studies (ARIC & MESA)*^[1] have shown that vascular health assessment can reveal the risks of a likely cardiovascular event. The ARIC*^[2] study, a recent multi-institution study, indicates that certain patients can be reclassified in terms of the level of risk of a cardiovascular event by looking at the carotid artery thickness and the presence of plaque in that patient. As a result, Panasonic developed the innovative CardioHealth Station, a much needed device that will help the medical practitioner, quickly detect thickened carotid arteries or plaques. This process can now be taken out of the hospital setting and easily done in primary care. What once used to be difficult and impractical to do on a mass basis is now made possible by the innovative automation technology loaded as standard in the CardioHealth Station.

Chairman and CEO of Panasonic Europe Ltd. Laurent Abadie, stated, "We know that the cardiovascular health bill in Europe is over €190 billion a year. The CardioHealth station is an example of our commitment to ease the physical, physiological and financial burden of healthcare. Early diagnosis and treatment is one of three trends shaping our global healthcare strategy, which we aim to realise by supplying technologies that diagnose the health condition quicker and build the foundation for affordable and manageable prevention solutions."

The CardioHealth Station has a built-in portable ultrasound system optimized to perform a non-invasive examination of the peripheral arteries. It provides an automated measurement of the intima-media thickness (IMT) of arteries such as the common carotid and allows the user to search for arterial plaques using real-time B-mode imaging. The touchscreen keyboard allows the user to input various parameters relating to traditional cardiovascular risk factors. A built in calculator provides risk scores commonly used in a variety of geographical locations (Framingham Risk Score, PROCAM Health Check Score and Risk score based on the SCORE Project). This information is supplemented with an IMT measurement of the carotid artery to generate a comprehensive report to aid the physician in assessing cardiovascular risk.

Notes to Editors

*1 Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) and the ongoing Multiethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). Both studies are sponsored by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. More information about the ARIC study can be found at http://www.cscc.unc.edu/aric/; more information about the MESA study can be found at http://www.mesa-nhlbi.org

*2 ARIC study can be found at http://www.cscc.unc.edu/aric/

About Panasonic Healthcare Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Healthcare Co, Ltd., headquartered in Matsuyama, Japan, is a subsidiary of Panasonic Corporation (NYSE: PC) that specializes in the development and manufacture of healthcare products, including blood glucose monitoring systems, ultrasound diagnostic systems and hearing instruments. Founded in 1948, the company has been developing cutting-edge technologies in in-vitro diagnostic systems, medical imaging, hearing solutions, medical instruments and hospital systems to provide value-added solutions to healthcare professionals and patients. The previous corporate name was Panasonic Shikoku Electronics Co Ltd., which was changed to the current name on October 1, 2010. For more information, visit http://panasonic.net/corporate/segments/phc/.

For more company information, please visit http://www.panasonic.eu.

About Panasonic

Panasonic Corporation is a worldwide leader in the development and manufacture of electronic products for a wide range of consumer, business, and industrial needs. Based in Osaka, Japan, the company recorded consolidated net sales of 8.69 trillion yen (US$105.0billion) for the year ended March 31, 2011. The company's shares are listed on the Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and New York (NYSE:PC) stock exchanges. For more information on the company and the Panasonic brand, visit the company's website at http://panasonic.net/.