Knee indicator

Cardiff University spin-out Demasq recently revealed details of its novel bone and soft-tissue medical-imaging software, which aims to provide doctors with more detailed images of the knee than conventional technology.

The so-called Degenerative Knee Indicator (DKI) software will be launched in the UK and the US this year. In parallel, Demasq is generating additional products for a range of other imaging applications.

Demasq, the company, was established through a partnership between university IP commercialisation company Biofusion and Cardiff University and its products are based on the work of Prof Hechmi Toumi, a specialist at the muscle-bone-tendon unit of the university's School of Biosciences.

Commenting on the technology, Toumi said: 'This is an exciting venture that promises to alter our perception of the conventional use of X-rays. The soft tissues that have been invisible in the past are exactly the ones where most disease processes occur. The DKI allows clinicians to determine the health or otherwise of these soft tissues.'
 
In use, the software filters data that already exists in a conventional digital X-ray to provide detailed coloured images of the soft tissue around the bone - detail that is normally visualised only with MRI techniques.