FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Kirk Deeter
Bracco Diagnostics Press Office
303-838-8708

ACIST Medical Systems Launches Web Site
New Resource Offers Updated Information on Automated Contrast Delivery Systems

Eden Prairie, MN, April 11, 2005 – ACIST Medical Systems, a proven clinical and technological leader in automated contrast delivery systems and part of the Bracco Group, today announced the launch of a new Web site and product identity program. Both the Web site and product identity program are benchmarks in a major initiative by ACIST Medical Systems to enhance customer and product support efforts.

The Web site at http://www.acistmedical.com showcases current products, supporting clinical literature, and other resources for medical professionals throughout the world. Users stay in tune with the latest trends and technologies relative to automated contrast delivery systems.

“We recognize that, as the clinical acceptance and reliance on automated contrast delivery technology continues its dramatic growth, we have an obligation to deliver current and relevant information on our products to the medical community,” said Fulvio Renoldi Bracco, Chairman of the Board for ACIST. “This new Web site is a ‘real time’ resource to help inform and support our customers.”

The new product identity program includes use of a distinctive mark – a leaf is displayed prominently at the top of the Web site – which reflects the leaf in the ACIST logo, and also correlates with the nature-oriented, ecology friendly identity of ACIST Medical Systems’ parent company, the Bracco Group.

Through the Bracco Group, over three million people around the world have had cardiovascular angiographic procedures using an ACIST system. ACIST systems are widely proven in the global health care arena, with clinical usage in over 30 countries and in many world-renowned centers, as well as in community hospitals and university settings. As the ACIST automated contrast delivery technology becomes an accepted standard of care, clinical use is expected to increase greatly in the next five years, and is likely to replace the cumbersome and costly manual manifold techniques currently used in interventional cardiovascular procedures.

About Bracco
The Bracco Group is a world leading provider of global diagnostic imaging solutions, with net sales of more than $1.25 billion. Bracco has operations in 115 countries and about 3,500 employees, over 600 of whom work in R&D. Bracco invests approximately 15% of its annual turnover in R&D and has a portfolio of 1,500 patents worldwide.

The Bracco Group is a leader in the diagnostic imaging market with an integrated product offering from a diverse roster of subsidiary companies. While Bracco is recognized internationally as a definitive market leader in its core business of contrast media, Bracco also markets key diagnostic imaging resources through the following companies: Esaote, which is one of the world’s primary producers of magnetic resonance and ultrasound imaging systems; ACIST Medical Systems, a manufacturer of advanced contrast media injection systems; EBIT-AET, which creates and markets medical application software, and Singapore-based Volume Interactions, which also produces advanced medical software.

Bracco also operates a high-level international research network, with three centers (Milan, Geneva, and Princeton). These centers develop products of the latest-generation diagnostic techniques, from X-ray and computed tomography (CT) to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), nuclear medicine and ultrasound.