LightSpeed CT750 HD to Deliver World's Fastest Detector, Vastly Improved Clarity, Half the Dose

LAS VEGAS, May 13, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- GE Healthcare, a global leader in imaging and in dose reduction
technologies, has announced U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA)
clearance of the LightSpeed CT750 HD, the world's first high
definition CT scanner. LightSpeed CT750 HD will set the new standard
for CT clarity, delivering the vision and the tools to allow
clinicians to diagnose quickly and confidently.

At its heart is the first new detector material in 20 years; one
that is, quite literally, a gem. GE engineers discovered that, by
changing the molecular structure of real garnets, they could develop a
scintillator capable of delivering images 100 times faster, with up to
33% greater detail through the body and up to 47% greater detail in
the heart. They had unlocked the secret of the proprietary GE Gemstone
Detector(TM), boasting the fastest primary speed in the CT industry,
and the driving force of the first of its kind "Gemstone Spectral
Imaging" process. Gemstone Spectral Imaging uses up to 2496 views per
rotation (a 2.5x increase) to deliver improved spatial resolution and
improved image quality across the entire field of view. Dual energy
fast kV switching registers energies at least 165 times faster than
Dual Source CT at a .33s rotating speed. It offers 128 slices of
unique data per rotation and 101 user selectable energy levels for
viewing. In short, it brings faster, clearer images into today's
demanding health care environment without sacrificing the element
patients and clinicians demand most: radiation dose reduction. Though
the laws of physics typically demand an increase in dose for each
increase in image quality, GE Healthcare has engineered an exception.
CT750 HD improves image quality while reducing dose by up to 50%
across the entire body and by as much as 83% for cardiac scans.

In addition to providing fine detail, allowing clinicians to see
objects as small as a grain of sand, CT750 HD's improved spatial
resolution allows it to reduce calcium blooming artifacts. Because of
this, accurate stenosis quantification is possible. In bench testing,
it was able to accurately measure 75% stenosis on a 3mm vessel within
100 microns. It also benefits from improved low contrast detection
(LCD), a measure of the amount of contrast needed to image a given
object at a given dose. CT750 HD bench tested with a 40% LCD
improvement over the previous release.

"This is a game changer," said Gene Saragnese, Vice President and
General Manager of GE Healthcare's Global CT and Molecular Imaging
businesses. "We are delivering the customer-driven future of CT and we
couldn't be prouder of the product their feedback has created. Our
customers told us they wanted to look at an image and not just see
more but see more detail. The LightSpeed CT750 HD gives them those
tools and more, with less dose than ever before, bringing us right to
the edge of early health, our vision here at GE Healthcare. It's now
up to us to take this technological leap and move into the future.
That's CT Re-imagined."

ABOUT GE HEALTHCARE

GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies that
are shaping a new age of patient care. Our expertise in medical
imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient
monitoring systems, drug discovery, and biopharmaceutical
manufacturing technologies is helping clinicians around the world
re-imagine new ways to predict, diagnose, inform and treat disease, so
their patients can live their lives to the fullest.

GE Healthcare's broad range of products and services enable
healthcare providers to better diagnose and treat cancer, heart
disease, neurological diseases, and other conditions earlier. Our
vision for the future is to enable a new "early health" model of care
focused on earlier diagnosis, pre-symptomatic disease detection and
disease prevention. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare
is a $17 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE:GE).
Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 46,000 people committed to
serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100
countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website
at www.gehealthcare.com.

SOURCE: GE Healthcare

GE Healthcare
Corey Miller, 414.469.5499 (Media)
corey.miller@ge.com

Copyright Business Wire 2008