Anyone that has had an ultrasound realizes what a powerful tool this is for the medical community. Usually rolled about on a large cart, the ultrasound has not escaped the technological advances as other devices have enjoyed. Now Signostics, known as a pioneering medical device company (or so they call themselves) , has announced an ultrasound that would be downright fun to have.
The Signos Portable Ultrasound has just recently cleared the hurdles of being approved by the FDA in the United States. The unit, which weighs just over half a pound, boasts a standby time of fourteen days with a powerup from sleep in only a second. This puts the pocket size wonder at home in an emergency triage where quick visualizations of problems could save lives. Of course, this kind of capabilities in this form factor will no doubt find its way out of emergency rooms and into a wider use than was practical for ultrasounds in the past. James Li, MD FAAEM
Assistant Professor, Division of Emergency Medicine (ret.) Harvard Medical School, agrees as
puts it,
… its small size makes it a major improvement over prior technology,
and will expand its usefulness far beyond existing devices marketed for
emergency use.
The unit features an onboard microSD card which can store up to 20,000 images for uploading to a PC for further study. Control is done via a touch screen, and the tethered sensor can be switched between 3.5mhz and 7.5mhz as needed. The price is rated "at a fraction of the cost of larger machines", but that is probably code for "expensive".
Hopefully this technology will continue to improve to where you can run out to your local CVS/Walgreen and pick one up for home use (although the FDA would probably prohibit such a sell – see the info box below). Just imagine the kinds of uses you could find for such a handy ultrasound. Picked up a splinter during some home construction projects? – check it out. Curious if your appendix did in fact grow back? Now you can find out. And best of all, you know that mystery fruitcake you get sometimes? With one of these wonders you can actually check it out before passing it on uncut. Now isn't technology great? You can find out more at the Signostics product page.
via
Ultrasonography is generally considered a "safe" imaging modality. However slight detrimental effects have been occasionally observed (see below). Diagnostic ultrasound studies of the fetus are generally considered to be safe during pregnancy. This diagnostic procedure should be performed only when there is a valid medical indication, and the lowest possible ultrasonic exposure setting should be used to gain the necessary diagnostic information under the "as low as reasonably achievable" or ALARA principle.
World Health Organizations technical report series 875(1998) suports that ultrasound is harmless: "Diagnostic ultrasound is recognized as a safe, effective, and highly flexible imaging modality capable of providing clinically relevant information about most parts of the body in a rapid and cost-effective fashion". "The proper, safe, and effective use of diagnostic ultrasound is highly dependent on the user, who has a major impact on the examination's overall benefit. In fact, the skill and training of the user are often more important than the equipment used. For this reason standards for ultrasonography training are a prerequisite for the provision of diagnostic ultrasound services of high quality".
Although there is no evidence ultrasound could be harmful for the fetus, US Food and Drug Administration views promotion, selling, or leasing of ultrasound equipment for making "keepsake fetal videos" to be an unapproved use of a medical device.
source: wikipedia
