Portable Ultrasound Technology Research Articles

Patient satisfaction using handheld ultrasound at emergency department in Jordan University Hospital

IntroductionThe use of portable ultrasound equipment in emergency medicine has shown the capacity to greatly improve patient care in the swiftly changing field. This research evaluates the influence of the Butterfly POCUS device on patient contentment in the Emergency Department at Jordan University Hospital.Materials and MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional survey of 98 patients to examine their satisfaction levels after undergoing an ultrasound examination. We then evaluated these levels in relation to demographic and clinical characteristics.ResultsSeventy eight percent of the patients expressed a high level of satisfaction with their evaluation. This satisfaction level was consistent across all patient demographics, with no notable differences. Significantly, there was a clear correlation between greater satisfaction levels and higher first pain ratings, indicating that the technology effectively addresses patient concerns and enhances the diagnostic experience.ConclusionThe findings of our study support the wider use of portable ultrasound technology in emergency care settings, emphasizing its ability to greatly enhance patient satisfaction and outcomes. Further investigation should include multicenter trials to authenticate these results and investigate the long-term effects on clinical practice.

Next-generation monitoring in obstetrics: Assessing the accuracy of non-piezo portable ultrasound technology.

The emergence of handheld ultrasound devices capable of connecting to cell phones or tablets heralds a significant advancement in medical technology, particularly within the field of obstetrics. These devices offer the promise of immediate bedside ultrasound examinations, potentially revolutionizing patient care by enabling fetal assessments in diverse settings. This prospective study aimed to validate the reliability of non-piezo, chip-based handheld ultrasound devices in clinical obstetric practice. Conducted in a university hospital obstetric ward, the study included 100 pregnant women between 17 and 41 weeks of gestation. Participants underwent ultrasound examinations using both conventional and portable point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) devices to compare the accuracy in estimating fetal weight and other parameters, such as cardiac activity, fetal presentation, placental location, and amniotic fluid volume. The reliability and agreement between the devices were assessed using intraclass correlation coefficients, Bland-Altman plots, and Pearson correlation coefficients. The results show a near-perfect agreement (0.98) and correlation (r = 0.98, p < 0.001) for estimated fetal weight and most biometry measurements between the two types of ultrasound devices, with slight deviations in head circumference and amniotic fluid index measurements. Subgroup analysis revealed variations in agreement and correlation rates with higher BMI and advanced gestational age, indicating areas for further refinement. These findings affirm the high reliability of handheld ultrasound devices for basic obstetric ultrasound evaluations, supporting their integration into daily clinical practice. This technology improves the flexibility and immediacy of prenatal care, although further research is needed to optimize its application across patient populations and treatment settings.

A Qualitative Review of the Air Rescue One Rural Search and Rescue Program in British Columbia, Canada.

Rural emergency prehospital care in British Columbia is conducted primarily by the British Columbia Ambulance Services or ground search and rescue volunteers. Since 2014, the volunteer Air Rescue One (AR1) program has provided helicopter emergency winch rescue services to rural British Columbia. The aim of this research was to describe the activity of the AR1 program and to make recommendations to improve future operations. Data were collected retrospectively from September 2014 to May 2021, and parameters of emergency callout statistics from the organization's standard operating guidelines, rescue reports, and interviews were summarized and reviewed. Of 152 missions within the study period, 105 were medically related rescues involving trauma or cardiac events. Snowmobiling, mountain biking, and hiking were the most common activities requiring rescue. The 38 medical callouts that were not completed by AR1 were reviewed for contributing factors. Response time varied due to the vast service area, but median time from request to takeoff was 55 min (interquartile range 47-69 min), and median on-scene time was 21 min (interquartile range 11-33 min). AR1 provides advanced medical care into British Columbia's remote and difficult-to-access areas, minimizing delays in treatment and risk to patients and responders. Callout procedures should be streamlined enabling efficient AR1 activation. Collection of medical and flight information should be improved with standardized documentation, aiding in internal education and future research into the program's impact on emergency prehospital care. Future directions for improvement of care include the possibility of introducing portable ultrasound technology.

140 Patient Performed Thoracic Lung Ultrasound

Given expanding utilization of telemedicine for remote patient monitoring and improving portable ultrasound technology, a situation in which patients perform their own ultrasound may not be far in the future. In this study we aimed to evaluate the ability of patients to self-perform lung ultrasound (LUS) with minimal guidance. We hypothesized that with brief instruction, patients could obtain diagnostic ultrasound images of similar quality as those obtained by ultrasound experts. This was a prospective observational study of patients ≥18 years old presenting to a tertiary care emergency department. Patients watched a 5-minute instructional video describing a four-zone LUS protocol (right superior anterior, left superior anterior, right hemidiaphragm, left hemidiaphragm). Patients were surveyed on their comfort and willingness to independently perform the study protocol. Study sonographers repeated the scans using the same scanning protocol. Images were blindly reviewed and independently scored by two ultrasound fellowship-trained attending physicians who rated image quality on a Likert scale from 1-5; a score of 3 or more was deemed interpretable. Inter-rater reliability between the two raters was estimated using intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Group differences were compared using Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney tests and chi- square tests. 32 English-speaking patients (50% female) of mean age 52.9 were enrolled. 94% were right-handed. 75% had prior computer experience or used technology regularly, and 94% had access to smart phones. The proportion of interpretable images were similar between the two groups except for the left hemidiaphragm (90% of provider-obtained images were interpretable vs. 45% of patient-performed images, P=0.002). Overall, the majority of patient-performed images were interpretable (66%). The mean of image scores was significantly higher for provider-obtained images, compared to patient-obtained images (P<0.05), except for images in the right hemidiaphragm, where the quality was similar (P=0.08). Inter-rater reliability was good (ICC = 0.78, 95% CI 0.72-0.83). Overall, patients reported high comfort with performing LUS [median score 4, interquartile range (IQR)4-5] and high willingness to perform LUS in the future (median score 4, IQR 4-5). With limited video-based instruction, patients can independently and comfortably obtain interpretable LUS images. However, patients had more difficulty in obtaining interpretable images in the left hemidiaphragm. With advents in telemedicine and portable ultrasound, patient-performed ultrasound could be explored as a means of home monitoring or remote diagnosis, but further research is needed.

New peripheral nerve blocks: are they worth the hype?

The advent of portable ultrasound technology has revolutionised our ability to place peripheral nerve blocks within tissue planes. Ultrasound guidance has facilitated the introduction of new innovative approaches to deeper nerves not previously attempted using landmark-based techniques. The majority of these truncal blocks involve the branches of the spinal nerves.

Ultrasound Evaluation of Bone Age in Rural Ecuadorian Children and Its Association with Nutrition (FS01-08-19)

ObjectivesThis study aimed to test use of portable ultrasound technology to determine bone age in rural Ecuadorian children and investigate its association with anthropometry and dietary intakes. MethodsChildren ages 2–3 years (n = 129) from Cotopaxi Province participated in Lulun Project II, a cohort follow-up to the Lulun Project, an RCT testing the efficacy of egg intervention in complementary feeding. Data collection, including targeted ultrasounds of the hand and wrist, was undertaken in participant households. Anthropometric measures were taken using international protocols and Z scores generated with WHO Growth Standards. ResultsMean bone age z-score (BAZ) was –1.5 (±1.2); –0.9 (±1.0) among girls and –2.0 (±1.2) among boys. Bone age z-scores were positively correlated with HAZ (r = 0.35, P < 0.001) and negatively correlated with BMI z-scores (r = –0.27, P = 0.002), but no association between bone age and WAZ was observed. Linear regression modeling demonstrated that HAZ (0.374 95% CI 0.174–0.574), female sex of the child (0.573 95% CI 0.214–0.932), 24-hour frequency of intake for savory snacks (0.290 95% CI 0.028–0.552), child taken to healthcare facility in previous 3 mo (–0.664, 95%CI –1.160, –0.167), ownership of pigs (–0.506, 95% CI –0.863, –0.148), and cultivation of cash crops (0.466, 95% CI 0.062, 0.870) significantly predicted BAZ. ConclusionsBone age in young children may be feasibly collected in a low-resource setting using portable ultrasound technology. As it highly correlates with HAZ and other diet anthropometric parameters, it prove to be an important tool in the evaluation of children’s nutritional status. Funding SourcesThe Mathile Institute for the Advancement of Human Nutrition.

Ultrasound Evaluation of Bone Age in Rural Ecuadorian Children and Its Association with Nutrition (FS01-08-19)

ObjectivesThis study aimed to test use of portable ultrasound technology to determine bone age in rural Ecuadorian children and investigate its association with anthropometry and dietary intakes. MethodsChildren ages 2–3 years (n = 129) from Cotopaxi Province participated in Lulun Project II, a cohort follow-up to the Lulun Project, an RCT testing the efficacy of egg intervention in complementary feeding. Data collection, including targeted ultrasounds of the hand and wrist, was undertaken in participant households. Anthropometric measures were taken using international protocols and Z scores generated with WHO Growth Standards. ResultsMean bone age z-score (BAZ) was -1.5 (± 1.2); -0.9 (± 1.0) among girls and -2.0 (± 1.2) among boys. Bone age z-scores were positively correlated with HAZ (r = 0.35, P < 0.001) and negatively correlated with BMI z-scores (r = -0.27, P = 0.002), but no association between bone age and WAZ was observed. Linear regression modeling demonstrated that HAZ (0.374 95% CI 0.174–0.574), female sex of the child (0.573 95% CI 0.214–0.932), 24-hour frequency of intake for savory snacks (0.290 95% CI 0.028–0.552), child taken to healthcare facility in previous 3 mo (-0.664, 95%CI -1.160, -0.167), ownership of pigs (-0.506, 95% CI -0.863, -0.148), and cultivation of cash crops (0.466, 95% CI 0.062, 0.870) significantly predicted BAZ. ConclusionsBone age in young children may be feasibly collected in a low-resource setting using portable ultrasound technology. As it highly correlates with HAZ and other diet anthropometric parameters, it prove to be an important tool in the evaluation of children’s nutritional status. Funding SourcesThe Mathile Institute for the Advancement of Human Nutrition.

Technology in graduate medical education: shifting the paradigm and advancing the field.

Technology in graduate medical education: shifting the paradigm and advancing the field.

Pocket‐sized ultrasonic surgical and rehabilitation solutions: From the lab bench to clinical trials.

The use of ultrasound in medicine has quickly evolved in the last decade as a therapeutic modality and means to treat disease independently or in combination with other therapeutic regimes such as chemotherapy. The interaction of ultrasonic waves with soft mammalian tissues has the innate impact of enhancing tissue permeability to therapeutics, increasing local blood flow at low‐acoustic powers, and causing tissue necrosis and cell death at higher‐energy levels. We have developed multiple pocket‐sized (4×2×1 in.) lithium battery powered therapeutic ultrasound units based off of our novel ultra‐efficient electrical amplifier design that produces acoustic energies for low‐ and high‐power applications (1–130 W). The portable ultrasound technology has been used in our laboratory to enhance ten‐fold the delivery and efficacy of convection enhanced drug delivery to treat brain gliomas in vitro and in vivo. Our clinical collaborates at Weill Cornell Medical Hospital use our devices at high powers to non‐invasively cauterize veins as a novel method of varicose vein treatment. Our clinical collaborators provide new avenues of ultrasound research and critical user feedback on the technology to aid refinements in its implementation in hand‐held acoustic applications.

Implications for the Integration and Utilization of Portable Ultrasound Technology as a Peripheral to Medical Information Systems

Implications for the Integration and Utilization of Portable Ultrasound Technology as a Peripheral to Medical Information Systems

FAST Ultrasound as an Adjunct to Triage Using the START Mass Casualty Triage System:

Objective. To determine whether the FAST examination might be a useful adjunct to simple triage andrapid treatment (START) in the secondary triage of mass-casualty victims already classified as delayed (Yellow). Methods. A retrospective chart review was conducted of all adult trauma patients evaluated by the trauma surgery service at a level 1 trauma center between January 1 andDecember 31, 2003. Patients were retrospectively triaged to one of three START categories: immediate (Red), delayed (Yellow), or expectant (Black). The FAST results were obtained from the medical records. Results. FAST results were available for 359 patients, of which 27 were classified as positive. Twenty (6.9%) of 286 patients retrospectively triaged as delayed (Yellow) had positive FAST studies. Of these, six underwent operative intervention within 24 hours of arrival. A total of 232 patients had both FAST andcomputed tomography (CT) studies performed, of which 19 FAST studies were inconclusive. In the remaining 213 patients, six of 27 had falsely positive studies, while 24 of 186 had falsely negative studies. Conclusions. Portable ultrasound technology might have identified 20 delayed (Yellow) patients with evidence of hemoperitoneum, thereby expediting evacuation to definitive care. However, only 30% of these patients subsequently underwent an operative intervention within 24 hours of arrival. Both over- andundertriage were significant problems. As such, the current study does not support the routine use of FAST ultrasound as a secondary triage tool.

The value of portable ultrasound for evaluation of cardiomegaly patients presenting at the emergency department

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the value of a hand-carried portable ultrasound device in the emergency department for patients with cardiomegaly and evaluate its impact on diagnosis and treatment. We compared the results of the portable ultrasound with the results of physical examination and with standard echocardiograph (SE) in the cardiomegaly patients in emergency department. Background: Recently, small portable ultrasound devices have been introduced, and they need more extensive study to evaluate their application. Methods: We used the OptiGo™ (Agilent Technologies, Andover, MA) portable device to evaluate emergency patients, and compared it with two SE devices available for this study, the Hewlett Packard (Sono 5500; Andover, MA) or the Vingmed (System V; Horten, Norway). Each of 100 patients was studied by physical examination first then examined with the portable ultrasound and standard echocardiography. The yields from physical examination and portable echocardiography were compared and results of the standard and portable were also compared. Results: There were a total of 243 cardiovascular findings detected by the standard echocardiographic examination in the 100 patients studied. Cardiac examination failed to detect 40% of the overall findings but the portable device missed only 17% of all findings. The portable device evaluated 201 conditions correctly (83%) and missed relevant clinical findings in 37 (17%) as compared to standard echocardiography, but in only 12 (5%) were these findings of major importance As an overall measure of diagnostic value, the portable device would have added to clinical judgment, thus boosting diagnostic accuracy from 62% to 83%. Conclusions: Portable ultrasound technology can provide rapid, readily available and important clinical information for emergency physicians in the management of emergency patients with cardiomegaly.

Fetal evaluation for transport by ultrasound performed by air medical teams: A case series

The air medical team has limited options when evaluating the obstetrical patient and assessing fetal health during air transport to a high-risk obstetrical unit. Traditionally, physical examination and a Doppler stethoscope have been used to determine fetal heart rates and movement. However, with the advent of portable ultrasound technology, new information about the mother and child are available to the air medical crew. The Fetal Evaluation for Transport with Ultrasound (FETUS) is a screening examination that consists of an evaluation of the fetal heart rate, position, and movement and general condition of the placenta. The examination can be repeated in flight with no acoustic distortion from rotor noise. The additional information can be advantageous when transport decisions need to be made or when conditions do not allow Doppler stethoscope use.

The use of ultrasound for linguistic phonetic fieldwork

An increasingly wide variety of imaging and tracking technologies have been applied to measuring speech articulation in recent years. However, virtually all of these techniques have been restricted to laboratory or clinical settings. Portable ultrasound technology offers a way to conduct easy, non-invasive dynamic imaging of the whole tongue for less commonly studied languages, both in the field and in the laboratory.