Elastographic Ultrasound System Reduces Unnecessary Liver Biopsies

A premium-grade ultrasound system offers unique solutions, such as acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) elastography imaging, multi-modality review, and contrast-enhanced ultrasound.

The ACUSON S3000 Ultrasound System, HELX Evolution with Touch Control is powered by an intuitive, user-centric interface on a 12.1-inch high-resolution display with instant response technology that allows for precise key selections, promoting streamlined exam workflow efficiencies. This new usability concept also helps to eliminate unnecessary keystrokes and repetitive hand movements. The interface features context-sensitive body markers, intuitive pictograms, transducer markers, and supportive, color-coded guidance annotations that suggest logical replacement text specific to the exam being performed.


A unique signal processing algorithm optimizes integration between the transducer and the display by doubling the standard pixel density, resulting in high definition (HD) images that provide diagnostic confidence. Multimodality imaging, which combines the 3D topography of computerized tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance (MR) with real-time ultrasound, provides a range of clinical and spatial information for interventional procedures and complex ultrasound analysis. Smart initialization and auto-alignment help reduce examination time and effort.

With the aid of ARFI imaging, proprietary Virtual Touch (VT) technologies provide a new dimension of ultrasound information to evaluate tissue stiffness with shear wave elastography (SWE). Another advanced feature is in-depth anatomy imaging using contrast enhanced ultrasound (CEUS), which allows for the visualization of lesions in organs based upon vascularity and contrast harmonic imaging (CHI) for detail, and contrast pulse sequencing (CPS) for penetrating clarity. The ACUSON S3000 Ultrasound System, HELX Evolution with Touch Control is a product of Siemens Healthcare (Erlangen, Germany).

SWE relies on the lateral displacement of tissues induced by the force of a focused ultrasound beam or by external pressure that creates shear waves that are perpendicular to the direction of the generating force, travel slowly, and are rapidly attenuated by tissue; the propagation velocity of the shear waves correlates with the elasticity of tissue. The combination CEUS and SWE enhance the comparison of blood flow in the microcirculation with the mechanical and structural properties of tissue, giving even more diagnostic information.

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