Practitioners like their ultrasound machines

Practitioners like their ultrasound machines Someone on one of the e-mail lists asked other practitioners what recommendations they had for ultrasound machines. Which was the best. Free advice was provided by many practitioners, and most of it was very positive. In general, practitioners are happy with the ultrasound units they are using. Names of practitioners are not listed here, but some of the remarks are direct quotes. The discussion started with the following: "Our practice is in the market for a new ultrasound machine. We currently have one diagnostic U/S and two good older machines for repro work. The bulk of our U/S work is ambulatory trans-rectal repro, but we are doing more and more tendon scanning, and some body cavity scanning. At this time, durability and image quality are more important for us than advanced software, but investing in a second diagnostic machine that expands and improves our U/S services is definitely possible. We would like to know what ultrasound machines everyone out there likes (or doesn't like) and why." One practitioner replied, "I just traded off my E.I. Medical machine for an Aloka 500V and am very pleased with the quality and detail the Aloka delivers, but coming from the old machine, I think just about anything would look great! Honestly though, have a look at Aloka. I just have the 5 meg rectal probe but when used with an offset, I am very pleased with tendon images." Another practitioner said, "I've been very happy with my Aloka 500 with 5 MHz probe. I do repro and a lot of tendon work. Before making my purchase, I went to a seminar in which various machines were set up so one could do side-by side comparison. The 5MHz probe on the Aloka provided better image quality than variable frequency probes (in my hands anyway). Aloka didn't have many 'bells & whistles' just excellent image quality-that is what I considered to be most important. I may purchase a 7.5 MHz probe to do sesamoidian ligaments but so far I've been able to get decent views with the 5MHz-smaller probe would just be easier. I drag my Aloka along on endurance rides so it is very rugged and using a surge suppressor, I've even run it off a generator power source." Another comment was, "We purchased the Sonovet 600 last year from Universal Ultrasound in July '98. We have been extremely pleased with it for both tendons and repro. Good images/nifty software (especially for measuring % tendon damage, etc.). Priced fairly. I'd strongly recomi mend you to at least look at one!" [I Another practitioner seconded that comment about Sonovet 600, saying, "Wonderful images, love the tendon package-- and fairly priced. I use it on a lot of foals, and it works great. I also use it in my husband's smaI1 animal practice. It is easy to clean, never have had any mechanical or other problems." Another Sonovet recommendation was, "Please consider the Sonovet 600 from Universal Ultrasound. It does a very nice job on repro with the 5 MHz and does especially fine tendon work with the 7.5 MHz. The software allows you to document the size of the lesion, the size of the tendon, the per cent of the tendon involved, etc, and prints that out in chart form for you. If you want to do hearts, you will need a probe that will penetrate 30crn. None of the Japanese machines will get more than 21-24 cm. Look into the Ausonics Impact if you want to do hearts."

Volume 19, Number 12, 1999

785