BOTHELL, WASH(Press Release) - Verathon Inc. (formerly Diagnostic Ultrasound Corp.) announced the winners of its first annual Verathon Technology Challenge, this year in the field of urology, at the annual meeting of the American Urological Association, May 19-24. The challenge was issued to determine how bladder wall mass and ultrasound-estimated bladder weight measurements could best be utilized in clinical practice.

Subbarao V. Yalla, M.D. and Maryrose Sullivan, Ph.D, both from the Veterans Administration Boston Healthcare System and Harvard University received the Verathon Technology Challenge Award, along with a check for $10,000 for their paper entitled "Non-invasive Objective Assessment of Lower Urinary Tract Dysfunction: Differentiation of Overactive Bladder and Bladder Outlet Obstruction," at a special awards ceremony May 20.

"Dr. Sullivan and I have focused our careers on helping veterans who are afflicted with varied types of voiding dysfunction," said Dr. Subbarao Yalla, professor of surgery (urology) at Harvard Medical School and practicing urologist at the Veterans Administration Boston Healthcare System, an affiliate of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. "While we teach and also supervise urology residents, we have concentrated our efforts on research of lower urinary tract physiology. We're ready to begin this clinical study to learn more about how bladder wall mass measurements can assist in the diagnosis of overactive bladder and bladder outlet obstruction."

Abstracts for the challenge needed to present a protocol and explain how that protocol would definitively refine the diagnostic impact of ultrasound-estimated bladder weight (UEBW) and effectively demonstrate the clinical significance of the correlation between UEBW and bladder outlet obstruction (BOO), and how it would be implemented in a clinical trial.

The clinical significance of bladder wall mass in BOO and overactive bladder has been noted, but to date it has not been well defined. Measurement of bladder wall mass has the potential to provide physicians with useful information for determining patient care plans.

Verathon developed an innovative, handheld ultrasound device, the BladderScan BVM 6500, that measures both bladder volume and bladder wall mass noninvasively. The BVM 6500 was designed to assist in the diagnosis of bladder hypertrophy secondary to obstruction, predicated on a correlation between UEBW and BOO. The goal of the challenge was to maximize the clinical utility and significance of the BladderScan BVM 6500 as a diagnostic and treatment tool.

"We received excellent abstracts from North America, Europe and Asia," said Gerald McMorrow, CEO, founder and chairman of the board of Verathon. "We choose Yalla and Sullivan's study because we liked that they are looking to address the root cause of overactive bladder through the combination of ultrasound-estimated bladder weight and other non-invasive measures as the outcome of the study by using objective factors establishing the utility of ultrasound-estimated bladder weight."

About Verathon Inc.
Verathon, formerly Diagnostic Ultrasound Corp., designs and manufactures reliable, state-of-the-art medical devices and services that offer a meaningful improvement in patient care to the health care community. The company's noninvasive BladderScan instrument is the standard of care for bladder volume measurement. The brand is found in over 60 countries in Urology and Primary Care practices, as well as Acute and Extended Care facilities. With the January 2006 acquisition of Saturn Biomedical Systems in Vancouver, Canada, Verathon entered Anesthesiology, Critical Care and Emergency markets with the GlideScope video laryngoscope (GVL) brand. Verathon is headquartered in Bothell, Wash., and has approximately 270 employees worldwide. For more information, please visit www.verathon.com.

Subbarao V. Yalla, M.D. and Maryrose Sullivan, Ph.D, winners of the Verathon Technology Challenge, accept a check from Gerald McMorrow, CEO, founder and chairman of the board of Verathon, for their work in non-invasive urology treatments.

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