Hand-carried ultrasound devices in pediatric cardiology: clinical experience with three different devices in 110 patients.
BACKGROUND
The aims of this study were to determine the usefulness of hand-carried ultrasound devices in pediatric cardiology and to compare the performance of three different hand-carried ultrasound devices in a pediatric cardiology outpatient clinic and intensive care unit.


METHODS
One hundred ten patients (49 male; mean age, 6.4 ± 5.2 years; range 0.1-38 years) with congenital heart defects or innocent heart murmurs were examined using Siemens Acuson P10, Siemens Acuson P50, and Philips CX 50 systems. The quality of images and the accuracy of B-mode measurements were compared with those obtained using a standard echocardiographic system (Philips iE33).


RESULTS
Fifty-nine patients were examined with the Siemens Acuson P10, 29 with the Siemens Acuson P50, and 22 with the Philips CX 50 system. There were no significant differences in B-mode measurements. The Acuson P10 system, however, showed significantly lower image quality, with 64.54% of all studies considered of excellent quality compared with 92.83% with the Acuson P50 and 95.52% with the CX 50 (P < .05) and a mean quality score (1 = fair, 5 = excellent) of 3.5 versus 4.57 with the Acuson P50 and 4.86 with the CX 50 (P < .05). This was attributed to the limited capacity for accurate diagnosis in children with body weights < 10 kg and complex heart defects.


CONCLUSIONS
Hand-carried ultrasound devices represent a valuable alternative to standard echocardiographic systems in pediatric cardiology. In particular, systems including all echocardiographic modalities offer unlimited versatility in outpatient and intensive care.
Dalla Pozza
Robert
R
Department of Pediatric Cardiology, Klinikum Grosshadern, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany. robert.dallapozza@med.uni-muenchen.de
Loeff
Markus
M
Kozlik-Feldmann
Rainer
R
Netz
Heinrich
H
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004452:Echocardiography / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004867:Equipment Design; D005260:Female; D006330:Heart Defects, Congenital / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006337:Heart Murmurs / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007363:Intensive Care Units, Neonatal; D015278:Intensive Care Units, Pediatric; D008297:Male; D008904:Miniaturization / Q000295:instrumentation*; D010044:Outpatient Clinics, Hospital; D019095:Point-of-Care Systems; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D019023:Stethoscopes; D055815:Young Adult