Ultrasound improves eye tumour diagnosis at London hospitals

Published: 10-May-2012

Hand-carried device boosts cancer services in the capital

Hand-carried ultrasound systems are being used to enhance the diagnosis and monitoring of eye tumours at Moorfields, St Bartholomew’s and the Royal London hospitals.

Mandeep Sagoo, a consultant ophthalmic surgeon, said SonoSite’s M-Turbo technology would help to improve services, adding: “A biopsy can be taken in most oncology cases, but this is difficult with the eye, and therefore the diagnosis is based on tests such as ultrasound. Ultrasound scanning with the M-Turbo enables us to determine the shape and size of the tumour, as well as the internal reflectivity and the presence of any calcium deposits, and the Doppler module allows us to study blood flow through it. These are all clues towards a final diagnosis.

“Since the type of treatment offered is dependent on the size of the tumour, it is important that this is measured very accurately, and the M-Turbo enables us to do this. Some lesions may be benign and simply require monitoring with serial ultrasound scans, small or medium-sized malignant melanomas can be treated conservatively with radiotherapy, while large tumours are more likely to require surgery. The M¬-Turbo’s image quality is very good and the system is quite intuitive and easy to use. Its compact size and robustness also allows for easy transport between sites if necessary, which is the real beauty of the system.”

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