title: Real-time compound ultrasonography: pictorial review of technology and the preliminary experience in clinical application of the abdomen.
abstract: The purposes of this essay are to illustrate the technology overview and theoretical benefits of real-time compound ultrasonography (US) and to present our preliminary clinical experience in the evaluation of normal and diseased abdomens. The application of compounding principles to real-time US and its recent reintroduction into mainstream commercial systems have offered new opportunities for its clinical application to the routine examination of the abdomen. In our early preliminary experience, this technique effectively suppressed many of the US artifacts, better depicted the margin or boundary of the lesion, and increased contrast resolution or lesion conspicuity. Therefore, we believe that real-time compound US is a promising technique that may enhance the diagnostic confidence of the examination in the evaluation of normal and diseased abdomens.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, 388-1, Poongnap-dong, Songpa-ku, Seoul 138-736, Korea.
authors.forename: K W
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: B I
authors.initials: BI
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: S Y
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Yoo
authors.forename: Y H
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: H-C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: K H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Won
authors.forename: J K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Han
mesh_terms: D000005:Abdomen / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D008488:Medical Illustration; D013997:Time Factors; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*