Cardiologists at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK, are using a SONOSITE MicroMaxx ultrasound system for point-of-care emergency echocardiography as well as to perform transoesophageal echocardiography (TOE) for a variety of procedures.
Quick and easy echocardiography
Harald Becher, Consultant Cardiologist at the hospital and Professor of Cardiac Ultrasound at Oxford University, explained, “With hand-carried ultrasound we can quickly carry out echocardiography for patients on the wards or in the theatre, most of whom need an urgent diagnosis. We are usually looking at left ventricular function, pericardial effusion, complications of myocardial infarction and severe mitral regurgitation. Taking these patients to the scanner is often not an option and it would take too long to move the bulky, cart-based scanners to the wards, but the MicroMaxx is very quick and reliable for making a decision in this situation and the image quality is sufficiently high.”
