Portable Ultrasound Used as Stroke-Screening Tool

The findings were presented at the 27th International Stroke Conference in San Antonio (TX, USA).

The study was conducted by researchers at Wake Forest University (Winston-Salem, NC, USA). They screened the carotid arteries of 51 patients using a portable ultrasound system with power Doppler imaging. The degree of blockage was estimated by measuring the area ratio and the diameter ratio. These measurements were shown to be 89.7% accurate (area ratio) and 84.3% accurate (diameter ratio) in detecting severe blockage. The ultrasound system used in the study was the SonoSite 180 system, from SonoSite (Bothell, WA, USA; www.sonosite.com). The system can easily be carried by hand to a screening site in a backpack, says the company.

"Previously, ultrasonography has not been considered to be a convenient stroke-screening tool, because of lengthy scanning times,” said Ulf Schminke, M.D., research fellow at Wake Forest and lead author of the study. "Vascular imaging with the SonoSite 180 system allows for brief and high-quality evaluations at the point of examination.”




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