ELEKTA WINS TENDER TO DELIVER SOPHISTICATED 3-D BRAIN MAPPING TECHNOLOGY TO LEADING GERMAN INSTITUTION

MPI CBS will upgrade its facilities and replace its current MEG equipment with a brand new Elekta Neuromag® system. With the new MEG system from Elekta installed, neurosurgeons, neurologists and psychiatrists at this renowned institution, will be able to non-invasively register nerve cell activity in the brain in real time, better and more accurate than before. Improvements that are further enhanced by the highly innovative MaxFilter™ software that filters all magnetic interferences and artifacts, both internal and external, and provides an analysis with more reliable data.

MEG technology is for many reasons regarded as the most efficient method for tracking brain activity in real-time and Elekta offers the most comprehensive state-of-the-art system on the market today. Compared to EEG, MEG has unique sensitivity capabilities. MEG also offers functional mapping information and measurement of brain activity in real time, unlike Computer Tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI and fMRI) which only provide structural, anatomical and metabolic information. As an important complement to these technologies, MEG increases the ability to understand brain activity and to improve treatment of functional disorders in the brain.

The MPI CBS, a research institute of the world famous Max-Planck Gesellschaft, is performing fundamental research revolving around human cognitive abilities and cerebral processes. Ongoing research look into the perception of language, music, actions and their outcome, the planning and generation of language and activity, and the interaction between, and common functional principles of, generation and perception in various cognitive fields.

“Elekta is and has always been dedicated to fighting serious disease and we can see a great untapped potential in MEG. MEG is already a proven technology with great value in brain research. Currently we see much exciting development going on in the field of clinical applications and Elekta is fully committed to leading this development and bring its possibilities into clinical use, benefiting patients all over the world” says Tomas Puusepp, President and CEO of Elekta and continues “As the only MEG vendor on the market with the financial stability needed to be committed to the long-term development of MEG technology, we are alone in being able to offer long-term relationships and ensure future development of the platform and its applications, thereby securing the customers' investment.”


MaxDiagnose™, new analysis support tool presented at Biomag 2006

At the Biomag 2006 meeting, held in Vancouver, Canada at the end of August, Elekta showed a strong presence and leadership to the field of magnetoencephalography (MEG). During the conference, Elekta presented the first dedicated clinical analysis system, MaxDiagnose™, for MEG. A system with several time-saving functionalities aimed to enabling routine clinical investigations and diagnostics. MaxDiagnose makes it possible to carry out the analysis of an epilepsy measurement in less than an hour, which is a breakthrough in the use of MEG. The major bottleneck in the clinical application of the technology, routine analysis of extended measurements will now finally be feasible. MaxDiagnose will be commercially available later during the year.

Elekta Neuromag®

Elekta Neuromag 306 MEG channels sensor array has higher density than any other system on the market and thus covers the brain better with a better representation of brain activity than any other MEG system. With the industry’s lowest noise to signal ratio, meaning that more useful information is acquired, and thus also the highest yield of information per sample.

The unique design of the sensors combined with advanced software makes it possible to gain data with unsurpassed detail even from the deepest realms of the brain. The system also has the highest available immunity to magnetic interference, either patient-related or external. Elekta Neuromag has also the lowest operational costs, with the longest liquid helium refill interval. Elekta Neuromag is technically one of the most sophisticated MEG/EEG devices available on the market today.