Shimadzu enters medical camera field with breast cancer diagnostic system

KYOTO – Shimadzu Corp. launched on Monday a near-infrared camera system to help diagnose metastatic breast cancer, making a foray into the Japanese medical camera market. Lightvision, the new product, allows surgeons to identify easily the positions of lymph nodes to be removed for diagnosis, by creating a real-time visualization that makes lymph nodes appear to glow blue or green following the injection of a special medical agent. With the system, which has 10-times zoom and auto-focus functions, surgeons will be able to perform operations while confirming the images on the monitor, the precision equipment maker said. In the future, Shimadzu hopes to use the technique to develop products for angiography.