Body Navigation-loaded Ultrasound Acquisition Technology: a Pilot Comparison With Conventional Ultrasound

Abstract

Background: To investigate the usefulness of body navigation-loaded ultrasound including a real time transducer location and the inspection site compared with conventional ultrasound images.Methods: Under the approval of institutional review board, we prospectively enrolled total 29 healthy adult volunteers. One gastrointestinal radiologist performed abdominal ultrasound simultaneously using Ultrasound Navigation Image Convergence System developed by researchers. Subsequently, an equivalent conventional ultrasound image set was prepared. Three radiologists independently evaluated the two ultrasound image sets regarding the recognition of the target organ (2-points), the transducer location (2-points), and the transducer orientation (1-point). At intervals of two-weeks, conventional ultrasound images were analyzed first, and body navigation-loaded images were later analyzed. The score differences between the first and second evaluations were compared using the Wilcoxon signed rank test. Inter-rater agreement of three reviewers was obtained by the Fleiss’ Kappa test.Results: A total of 1402 navigation-loaded ultrasound images were obtained. Ultrasound operator carefully selected a total of 203 images for analysis. In all three reviewers, the interpretation score of each evaluation was significantly increased in the second analysis using the body navigation-loaded ultrasound image (in reviewer A, from 4.07±1.56 to 4.79±0.69 points; in reviewer B, from 3.83±1.59 to 4.49±0.88 points; in reviewer C, from 3.43±1.60 to 4.19±1.01 points; P<.0001). The inter-rater agreement of each evaluation also increased significantly in the second analysis using the body navigation-loaded ultrasound image (P<.0001).Conclusion: The body navigation-loaded ultrasound imaging system allows other medical staffs to easily and accurately interpret ultrasound images.