Corporate News

Polarean Imaging plc (AIM: POLX), the medical-imaging technology company, with a proprietary drug-device combination product for the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) market, announces the delivery of the latest model of Polarean's Xenon polariser to the Center for Pulmonary Imaging Research at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center ("Cincinnati Children's"). The Company holds a Small Business Innovation Research ("SBIR") grant with the Cincinnati Children's, which was awarded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute ("NHLBI") in April 2017.

Cincinnati Children's is a non-profit academic medical center and is distinguished globally-renowned for paediatric teaching and research. Cincinnati Children's has been one of the Company's key clinical collaborators following the award of the SBIR grant last year. A key focus of the collaboration is to lead the field of paediatric pulmonary imaging through advanced imaging techniques and multi-nuclear capabilities, including hyperpolarized Xenon-129.

Jason Woods, Director at the Center for Pulmonary Imaging Research commented: "The combination of high polarisation provided by this machine and high throughput makes a significant difference for us in paediatric hyperpolarised-gas imaging, because we can generate multiple small batches, effectively on demand. This is particularly important when performing MRI on younger patients."

Richard Hullihen, CEO of Polarean, commented: "We are pleased to announce the delivery of the latest model of our xenon polariser in support of our SBIR grant with Cincinnati Children's and Dr Jason Woods' programme for advancing non-invasive hyperpolarized noble gas MR imaging in paediatric applications. We look forward to continuing our support of Cincinnati Children's breakthrough research efforts in early detection, therapy development, evaluation and management which we believe can improve the outcomes for these most vulnerable patients."

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About Polarean (www.polarean.com)

The Company and its wholly owned subsidiary, Polarean, Inc. (together the "Group") are revenue generating, medical drug-device combination companies operating in the high resolution medical imaging market.

The Group develops equipment that enables existing MRI systems to achieve an improved level of pulmonary function imaging and specialises in the use of hyperpolarised Xenon gas (129Xe) as an imaging agent to visualise ventilation and gas exchange regionally in the smallest airways of the lungs, the tissue barrier between the lung and the bloodstream and in the pulmonary vasculature. Xenon gas exhibits solubility and signal properties that enable it to be imaged within other tissues and organs.

The Group operates in an area of significant unmet medical need and the Group's technology provides a novel diagnostic approach, offering a non-invasive and radiation-free functional imaging platform which is more accurate and less harmful to the patient than current methods. The annual burden of pulmonary disease in the US is estimated to be over US$150 billion.

The Group also develops and manufactures high performance MRI radiofrequency (RF) coils which are a required component for imaging 129Xe in the MRI system. The development of these coils by the Group facilitates the adoption of the Xenon technology by providing application-specific RF coils which optimise the imaging of 129Xe in MRI equipment for use as a medical diagnostic as well as a method of monitoring the efficacy of therapeutic intervention.