ACUSON Sequoia™ Ultrasound System Auto Flash Artifact Suppression

White Paper Auto Flash Artifact Suppression ACUSON Sequoia Ultrasound System Tommy Wong, Principal Systems Engineer, Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc., Ultrasound siemens-healthineers.com/sequoia HOOD05162003028886 · Effective Date: 2-Aug-2019 SIEMENS Healthineers ACUSON Sequoia ultrasound system · White Paper Auto Flash Artifact Suppression Reducing variability among users, improved image quality and workflow - The implications of patient and transducer motion in • Due to involuntary cardiac motion, the clinician ultrasound, are significant. Up to 40% of abdominal may choose to angle or reposition the transducer ultrasound scans are repeat scans. Of those, 14% to a different scan window further away from the require additional follow-up exams, which may cost heart to avoid flash artifacts from cardiac motion. up to 8 billion dollars in additional tests*. Image quality Such a window may not be optimal for diagnosis. is a foremost concern, since even modest amounts of Alternatively, the clinician may manually reduce motion may be sufficient to reduce clinical confidence, the color Doppler sensitivity to a level that helps resulting in longer scan times, increased key strokes/ to avoid flash artifacts; by doing so, they risk not reach and repeat scans. All of which can impact detecting the blood flow of interest. departmental efficiency as well as patient and referring • physician satisfaction. During initial scanning assessment, clinicians constantly reposition the transducer to different anatomical windows in search of targets, causing temporal artifacts Overview to occur. As a result, the clinician will either move very slowly or manually reduce system sensitivity while High-performance ultrasound systems use sophisticated searching; and then, manually restore system sensitivity algorithms that make use of temporal information to when the search is complete. improve image quality and blood flow detection. Such technologies, however, are highly sensitive to motion. In each of these cases, workflow is disrupted, efficiency Based on the type of motion, clinicians often try several is reduced and the opportunity for user variability different workarounds: increases. In some cases, the clinician might temporarily or permanently preset the system to reduce or disable • To accommodate for patient respiratory motion, clinicians often ask patients to hold their breath, the image enhancing technologies in order to avoid which may not be practical for pediatric and/or motion artifacts, thereby reducing image performance very ill patients. and clinical confidence. 2 siemens-healthineers.com/sequoia HOOD05162003028886 · Effective Date: 2-Aug-2019 White Paper · ACUSON Sequoia ultrasound system These challenges can be overcome with intelligent, Benefits of Auto Flash Artifact Suppression integrated technologies that enable automatic correction for patient or transducer motion. Auto Flash Artifact Suppression eliminates the continual need to adjust sensitivity settings by automatically Auto Flash Artifact Suppression on the ACUSON Sequoia maintaining the best color sensitivity when little motion allows high-quality imaging without additional workflow is detected. As motion increases, the degree of suppression steps – designed to improve imaging consistency and automatically increases proportionally to provide an reduce unwarranted variability. More-over, faster quality artifact-free image. imaging can support higher levels of clinical confidence, faster triage in the ER, and better departmental and Auto Flash Artifact Suppression is a Siemens Healthineers organizational efficiency. proprietary, technology that detects and prevents artifacts associated with transducer and patient motion and enhances color imaging sensitivity when no motion is Motion Detection detected. It is integrated into the platform architecture of Auto Flash Artifact Suppression technology can the ACUSON Sequoia system and, as such, can support automatically detect patient and transducer movement higher image quality and greater diagnostic certainty that may impact image quality. The typical ghosting without adding additional steps to the clinician’s workflow. appearance associated with B-mode and color Doppler from motion and transducer movement is prevented Auto Flash Artifact Suppression enables the use of very while enhancing color sensitivity and reducing B-mode low filter settings without showing motion artifacts in noise when no motion is detected. color Doppler. When the system detects motion, it gradually and Figure 1 vs. Figure 2: Color Doppler image of the same automatically reduces persistence, which limits smearing scan comparison with Auto Flash Artifact Suppression or ghosting of images. When the motion stops, the off (Fig. 1) and on (Fig. 2), when the sonographer is system automatically restores itself to conventional surveying the liver with noticeable cardiac motion artifact. image processing, which maintains the original image integrity. In this way, clinicians achieve the highest Conclusion possible levels of image quality without additional steps, potentially saving time and increasing efficiency. Auto Flash Artifact Suppression technology can detect and prevent color motion artifacts to reduce noise, while at the same time enhances color sensitivity for improved image quality, reduced variability between users and improved workflow. Abdomen Abdon TIB: 426 TIS:1.26 MI:1.19 10fps 10fps 98% 2D 2D OdB/DR60 H High 0dB/DR60 LD 2 MapC/T5 UA 2 MapC/T5 P2 -6dB/ General Mid -6dB/ Genera P3/LD3 P3/LD3 PRF 1250 PRF 1250 MapF/F1 S2/Pr4 MapF/F3 S2/Pr4 2D + Color 2D + Color 12cm 12cm Figure 1: Conventional color Doppler image with motion artifacts. Figure 2: Color Doppler image with Auto Flash Artifact Suppression technology. siemens-healthineers.com/sequoia 3 HOOD05162003028886 · Effective Date: 2-Aug-2019 References *Source Case Report Repeat Abdominal Imaging Examinations in a Tertiary Kanal K, Bhargava P, Vaidya S, Dighe M. Ultrasound Care Hospital: Ivan K. Ip, MD, MPH,a,b Koenraad J. Artifacts Classification, Applied Physics with Illustrations, Mortele, MD,a,c Luciano M. Prevedello, MD,a and Ramin and Imaging Appearances. Ultrasound Quarterly. Khorasani, MD, MPHa 2014 June;30(2):145-157. Does radiologist recommendation for follow-up with Any technical data contained in this document may the same imaging modality contribute substantially to vary within defined tolerances. Original images always high-cost imaging volume?: Lee SI1, Saokar A, Dreyer KJ, lose a certain amount of detail when reproduced. Weilburg JB, Thrall JH, Hahn PF Standalone clinical images may have been cropped A 2009 Harvard School of Public Health report estimated to better visualize pathology. The products/features that redundant laboratory studies amounted to 8.2% mentioned in this document may not be commercially of all inpatient hospital costs in 2004, with redundant available in all countries. Due to regulatory reasons, radiology tests accounting for a total of $3.2 billion. their future availability cannot be guaranteed. Please contact your local Siemens Healthineers organization Source: Improving Safety And Eliminating Redundant for further details. Tests: Cutting Costs In U.S. Hospitals: Ashish K. Jha, David C. Chan, Abigail B. Ridgway, Calvin Franz and ACUSON Sequoia is a trademark of Siemens Medical David W. Bates. Solutions USA, Inc. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/26/health/obese- Auto Flash Artifact Suppression is Siemens Healthineers patients-health-care.html?_r=0 patented technology. Siemens Healthineers Headquarters Legal Manufacturer Siemens Healthcare GmbH Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc. Henkestr. 127 Ultrasound 91052 Erlangen, Germany 22010 S.E. 51st Street Phone: +49 9131 84-0 Issaquah, WA 98029 USA siemens-healthineers.com Phone: 1-888-826-9702 siemens-healthineers.com/ultrasound Published by Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc. · Order No. A91US-554-1C-4A00 · Printed in Germany · 7870 0719 © Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc., 2019 HOOD05162003028886 · Effective Date: 2-Aug-2019