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Initial Experience with an Internally Rotating Transthoracic Three‐Dimensional Echocardiographic Probe and Image Acquisition on a Conventional Echocardiogram Machine
Author(s) -
PAPAVASSILIOU DIMITRIOS,
DOELLING NANCY R.,
BOWMAN MICHAEL K.,
YEUNG HUBERT,
ROCK JOSEPH,
KLAS BERTHOLD,
CHUNG KEVIN,
FYFE DEREK A.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
echocardiography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.404
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1540-8175
pISSN - 0742-2822
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-8175.1998.tb00618.x
Subject(s) - transducer , data acquisition , software , workstation , computer science , rotation (mathematics) , echo (communications protocol) , computer vision , artificial intelligence , computer hardware , acoustics , physics , computer network , programming language , operating system
Three‐dimensional echocardiography has required motorized external scanning devices that move a standard echo transducer to obtain data sets before reconstruction. These transducer holders are susceptible to axis alignment errors and transducer movement. The use of a three‐dimensional workstation makes acquisition cumbersome. An internally rotating 5‐MHz “omniplane” transthoracic transducer, specifically designed for three‐dimensional echocardiography, and an integrated three‐dimensional acquisition software package that allows single machine acquisitions were validated in 50 pediatric patients. Children were 1 day to 16 years old and had 22 different cardiac pathological conditions imaged. Ninety‐eight of the 104 (94%) data sets collected were successfully reconstructed in three dimensions. Acquisitions took 3–6 minutes depending on the increment of internal rotation. Minimum total study time to set up and complete the acquisition was 12 minutes. The new probe and software makes three‐dimensional acquisitions and reconstructions of consistently high quality, rapid, reliable, and user friendly.