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How do you know you’re getting diagnostic results from your probe?
Does your service provider test them?
How do they test them?
Probably with a tissue equivalent phantom!
Tissue equivalent phantom will test:
Axial resolution – this is mainly affected by the speed of ultrasound or the pulse width.
Lateral resolution – this is mainly affected by the beam width and the processing within the machine.
It will not successfully test:
Dropout – IF it is bad enough (it is not possible to see drop out in a cardiac probe as all elements fire together)
Cable breaks
Dead or weak elements
Individual elements shorting
Shorts in cables
Lenses delaminating
The tissue equivalent phantom is quick and easy to use but doesn’t give any measurable results of image quality. At best, the image “looks ok”.
Acoustic tester will test:
Dead or weak elements
Shorting in the elements
Breaks in the cable
Shorts in the cable
Delamination of the acoustic lens
Probe sensitivity (has it fallen off with age?)
Pulse width (directly related to Axial resolution)
Bandwidth (ability to optimise image for penetration or resolution)
Centre frequency
Pulse waveform
Frequency spectrum
So how does your service provider test your probes?
In Australia, only ProbeLogic has the required equipment to perform both acoustic testing and phantom testing.
ProbeLogic will be in SA and NSW in the next few weeks.
For more information on probe testing or to book a time for your probes to be tested, call ProbeLogic on 1300 611 503
Learn more. Subscribe to Probelogic blog
http://probelogic.com.au/how-do-you-know-youre-getting-diagnostic-results-from-your-probe-2/
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