Aims and objectives
To assess the clinical feasibility of a new real time hemodynamic detection technology for microvascularization evaluation in several clinical applications.
Methods and materials
Seven patients were evaluated using microV (Esaote S.p.A.,
Genova,
Italy) in different clinical applications:
Neurosonology: cerebral media artery stenosis;
Endocrinology: thyroid nodules;
Endocrinology: cervical lymph nodes;
Liver: hepatic hemangioma;
Kidney: renal cortex;
Musculoskeletal/Rheuma: synovitis;
Musculoskeletal/Rheuma: nail bed;
Musculoskeletal/Rheuma: metatarsophalangeal joint evaluation in rheumatoid arthritis.
microV technology,
here assessed in comparison with Color and Power Doppler,
is a recently introduced hemodynamic evaluation technology especially dedicated for microvascular examinations,
slow flow with weak intensity,
also in depth.
microV is a technology present on all probes (Linear,
Convex,...
Results
The results of the evaluation of microV technology done by different users in different clinical applications,
are here below reported:
1.
Neurosonology: cerebral media artery stenosis
A comparison was applied between color technique and power,
both with low and high scale (Pulse Repetition Frequency – PRF),
and microV.
It was achieved not only a higher resolution in the morphological definition of the vessel,
but also the different flow velocity,
which allowed us to study intracranial stenosis not detected by the conventional Doppler methods currently in...
Conclusion
microV showed very high sensitivity,
spatial resolution and scan in depth capabilities for slow and weak flows.
The microV tool demonstrated a high discrimination of movement artefacts with maximization of the independency of the structures with elevated contrast/saturation thus obtaining an accurate representation of the signal power value.
In particular:
microV showed a higher spatial resolution for vessel morphology and velocity component depiction,
and deeper scanning capability for cerebral media artery,
enabling the detection of vessel tortuosity initially diagnosed as stenosis;
The slow and weak...