Butterfly iQ: Pocket-Sized Ultrasound for Under $2500

Image From Butterfly Network I had the good fortune of being able to test-drive an amazing new product called the Butterfly iQ . It is an ultra-compact, pocket-sized, portable ultrasound device for under $2500 when most ultrasound machines cost tens of thousands of dollars. The entire ultrasound technology is built into the handheld body itself. Real-time images are viewed on a smartphone via a wired connection. This one ultrasound can be used to image the entire body! The cost of ultraso…

4/14/2019 0

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Breastfeeding Ultrasound

Although breastfeeding is something humans have provided longer than written history, it is only recently through ultrasound that we are only just discovering what actually is going on within the infant mouth. Here is a video showing the complex motion that tongue makes in order to obtain milk from the nipple. The key point is that the tongue moves both horizontally as well as vertically to achieve an effective and painless breastfeeding. Check it out here !

5/18/2015 0

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Large Thyroid Nodules Have Higher Risk of Cancer Even if Needle Biopsy is Normal

A recent 2015 study revealed that large thyroid nodules (over 3cm) have a higher risk of cancer and that needle biopsies are not very accurate in diagnosing cancer in such large nodules. This is hardly the first study to demonstrate this. In a 2009 study , surgeons at the University of Wisconsin found that fine needle aspiration  biopsy  (FNAB) in 26 of 52 FNAB reported as benign (50.0%) turned out to be either neoplastic (22) or malignant (4) on final pathologic analysis after  thyroidect…

1/27/2015 1

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Ultrasound of Breastfeeding Baby

Ever wonder what breastfeeding looks like inside an infant's mouth? What does the tongue do exactly? Does it move up and down or is it more back and forth? How far does the nipple go into the mouth exactly? Well, using ultrasound , researchers were able to exactly see what happens during breastfeeding inside an infant mouth. The key learning point discovered from the ultrasound images is that milk expression is due to a vacuum created within the infant mouth that occurs from the …

8/05/2014 0

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How Much Radiation Exposure Occurs with a CT Scan? X-ray? Sunlight?

A common concern now is how much radiation exposure occurs with common radiological testing such as x-rays and CT scans, especially given the small increased risk of cancer with accumulated exposure over years. Of note, ultrasounds and MRI scans do not emit radiation. MRI scans use magnets while ultrasounds use sound waves in order to obtain imaging information. So, here's a chart comparing such tests with common environmental radiation exposure such as sunlight. Information taken fro…

2/13/2013 0

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Surgery Without Wires

Surgery is messy... and I don't mean in terms of blood and guts... What I mean are wires, cables, tubing, etc. Let's take a routine tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy for example... Electric cord for the operating table Electric cord for the anesthesia machine Electric cord for the surgeon's headlight Light cord from the surgeon's headlight to the lightbox Breathing circuit tube from the patient to the anesthesia machine Carbon dioxide outflow tube from the patient t…

9/03/2011 0

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