Medicsight PLC (AIM:MDST), industry leader in the development of Computer-Aided Detection (CAD) and image analysis software which assists in the early detection and diagnosis of disease, is pleased to announce that yesterday it presented two abstracts at the 2008 European Congress of Radiology at the Austria Centre in Vienna.  The abstracts are entitled "CT colonography: computer-aided detection of morphologically flat T1 colonic carcinoma" and "CT colonography and computer aided detection: effect of false positives on reader specificity and reading efficiency in a low prevalence screening population".  Both abstracts were presented during the CT Colonography session (session number SS 1001b).

Medicsight is committed to ongoing clinical research demonstrating the performance of its ColonCAD™ software.  The first abstract refers to research demonstrating the effective use of ColonCAD™ for the detection of flat colonic lesions, which can be very difficult to visualise and are technically challenging for all CAD systems.  CAD systems for colorectal cancer have therefore tended to focus on the detection of polyps, which are generally more rounded and protuberant and thus easier to visualise.  In this retrospective study, ColonCAD™ successfully identified a high proportion of flat lesions previously verified by endoscopy.

The second abstract refers to a study examining the influence of false positives on reader specificity in CT colonography involving CAD.  All CAD systems generate some false positives, especially at high sensitivity settings, and this has led to a general perception among radiologists that this detracts from the usefulness of CAD software.  However in this study there was no correlation between the number of false positives and the reader's ability to successfully detect lesions.

For further information:

Medicsight PLC
David Sumner
Tel: +44 (0)20 7605 7950
www.medicsight.com

Collins Stewart Europe Limited
Tim Mickley
Jonny Sloan Tel: +44 (0)20 7523 8350
Tel: +44 (0)20 7523 8302

Media enquiries:

Abchurch
Ashley Tapp/ Stephanie Cuthbert
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7398 7718
stephanie.cuthbert@abchurch-group.com
www.abchurch-group.com

Notes to editors

Medicsight PLC is a UK-headquartered, research driven, leading developer of computer-aided detection (CAD) and image analysis software for the medical imaging market.  The CAD software automatically highlights suspicious areas on computerised tomography (CT) scans of the colon and lung, helping radiologists to identify, measure and analyse potential disease and early indicators of disease.  Medicsight's computer-aided detection (CAD) software has been validated using one of the world's largest and most population diverse databases of verified patient CT scan data.  Medicsight's ColonCAD™ and LungCAD™ software products are seamlessly integrated with the advanced 3D visualisation workstations of several industry-leading imaging equipment partners.

About Computer-Aided Detection

With increasingly sophisticated radiological imaging hardware such as Multi-Detector CT scanners, radiologists are facing a growing challenge in the amount of detailed patient image data that they must review for each patient examination.  Some CT scan examinations generate as many as 1000 images per patient.  Review of this data by the radiologist is not only time-consuming but also prone to error due to reader fatigue.  CAD software can help the reviewing radiologist by analysing the image data and automatically highlighting suspicious regions of interest for closer inspection.  Without CAD software some potential abnormalities or areas of disease may be overlooked.  This is critical for diagnosis and the management of patient outcomes as early detection of disease greatly increases the probability of successful treatment and a positive therapeutic outcome.

About Medicsight's CAD software

Medicsight's ColonCAD™ and LungCAD™ software use an advanced CAD algorithm to analyse CT scans of the colon and lung and automatically highlight suspicious areas that may be indicators of disease.  CAD may highlight areas easily overlooked by the reviewing radiologist, such as small lesions or regions that are hidden from view behind folds in the colon or normal structures and surrounding tissue in the lung.

Both CAD products seamlessly integrate with the advanced 3D visualisation platforms of industry-leading imaging equipment partners.  The integrated systems provide sophisticated image viewing capabilities, including 3D reconstructed image data, with the added advantage of demonstrating automatic CAD findings to assist clinical end users in the detection and analysis of disease.  This allows clinical end users to perform either a 'second read', where CAD findings are displayed to the user after completion of an initial review of the CT scan data, or a 'concurrent read' where CAD findings are displayed during the user's initial review of the original CT scan images.

Since inception, Medicsight has developed close and lasting relationships with some of the world's foremost clinicians in product related areas.  This provides the Company with a wealth of clinical expertise and dedicated clinical research to support ongoing product development.  Medicsight also collaborates with a number of leading academic institutions and clinical research programmes worldwide to develop the Company's comprehensive database of population diverse verified patient CT scan data, thus allowing Medicsight's products to be validated to the highest possible standards.