Volume 11 Issue 1 (February) - Australasian Society for Ultrasound ...

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Gaining greater
accuracy and efficiency
Realizing the benefits of volume ultrasound imaging
Who/where
Dr. Simon Elliott
Freeman Hospital,
Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K.
Challenge
Freeman Hospital was looking to
advance past two dimensional imaging
and take on new technologies that
would allow them to scan more
patients, with greater accuracy.
Solution
From clinical benefits, to improvement
in operational efficiencies, Philips
volume imaging is changing the
way Freeman Hospital’s radiology
department works.
Over the past three decades, ultrasound has
undergone dramatic shifts in technology. There
are many drivers influencing this evolution
including the need for rapid throughput, greater
efficiency within the radiology department,
tighter department budgets and the need to
focus on care cycle in disease management. As
a result, clinicians are demanding more from
ultrasound as they look to improve workflow
and diagnostic capability.
Philips has responded to these market changes
with volume imaging, a newer approach to the
way that ultrasound data is acquired, visualized,
and quantified. Volume imaging enhances
workflow in the radiology department, allowing
physicians to do more in a given period of
time. Additionally, it aids disease management
through advances in image visualization.
Freeman Hospital, in Newcastle upon
Tyne, U.K., is an 800-bed tertiary referral
center and teaching hospital with specialties
including renal, liver, pancreas, heart and lung
transplantation work. The bulk of the hospital’s
general ultrasound work is abdominal and small
parts imaging.
“We’ve been using two-dimensional ultrasound
for as long as anyone can remember,” said Dr.
Simon Elliott, consultant radiologist at Freeman
Hospital. “However, ultrasound is now facing
a lot of new challenges. At Freeman Hospital,
we need to scan more patients with greater
accuracy, particularly against other modalities
like CT and MR.”
“One thing we’ve been looking for is a model
where we can acquire data with a great deal
of security so that we know we’ve got all the
tissue that we want on the scan and then review
it at a later date just as we do with CT and
MR,” continued Dr. Elliott. “Volume ultrasound
has enabled us to get some way into that
sort of work, plus it’s a modality with which
radiologists are already familiar.”
What is volume imaging?
In conventional ultrasound, the operator
acquires a series of two dimensional (2D)
static images and real-time clips to evaluate a
region of interest. At minimum, structures are
viewed in two orthogonal (usually sagittal and
transverse) planes, although other intermediate
planes are often imaged as well. However, 2D
images and clips do not permit examination
of structures in planes that cannot be directly
interrogated by the ultrasound beam, nor do
they provide 3D representations of anatomy.
“The biggest impact for me of using
volume imaging is its efficiency.”
6 ASUM Ultrasound Bulletin 2008 February 11 (1)