Hand-Carried Ultrasound Devices in Pediatric Cardiology: Clinical Experience with Three Different Devices in 110 Patients
Volume 23, Issue 12, Pages 1231-1237 (December 2010)
Results
Fifty-nine patients were examined with the Siemens Acuson P10, 29 with the Siemens Acuson P50, and 22 with the Philips CX 50 system. There were no significant differences in B-mode measurements. The Acuson P10 system, however, showed significantly lower image quality, with 64.54% of all studies considered of excellent quality compared with 92.83% with the Acuson P50 and 95.52% with the CX 50 (P < .05) and a mean quality score (1 = fair, 5 = excellent) of 3.5 versus 4.57 with the Acuson P50 and 4.86 with the CX 50 (P < .05). This was attributed to the limited capacity for accurate diagnosis in children with body weights < 10 kg and complex heart defects.
Conclusion
Hand-carried ultrasound devices represent a valuable alternative to standard echocardiographic systems in pediatric cardiology
.
.
Editorial de Kimura, Bruce J. MD, FACC. San Diego, California
It was never a fair comparison: the pocket-sized device is meant to be an ultrasonic stethoscope, whereas the other two devices are echocardiographic machines. With the advent of pocket-sized ultrasound stethoscopes, we can now recognize functionality within day-to-day medical practice as the attribute exemplified by this technological trend, just as we have recognized the value of a low-resolution camera phone to record events but would never hire a professional photographer to use one.
