Managing abdominal aortic aneurysms currently relies on diameter assessment with ultrasound. Diameter reproducibility with two-dimensional ultrasound is challenging, and requires experienced operators. A novel automatic three-dimensional ultrasound system has the potential to facilitate more precise diameter measurements than two-dimensional ultrasound. This study aimed to assess the variance of abdominal aortic aneurysm diameter measurements among ultrasound novices and experts by comparing two-dimensional ultrasound with the three-dimensional ultrasound system in a clinical setting. Ten patients under abdominal aortic aneurysm surveillance were examined by 29 ultrasound-operators: 13 experts and 16 novices. The experts were sonographers and physicians highly experienced in abdominal aortic aneurysm ultrasound, and the novices were medical students and junior residents with sparse ultrasound experience.
Study Type
OBSERVATIONAL
Enrollment
10
All patients had their abdominal aortic aneurysm maximum anterior-posterior diameter estimated with two-dimensional ultrasound using a 5 MHz curved array transducer (Philips® C5-1 transducer, Philips Healthcare, Bothell, WA, USA). After the acquisition, a three-dimensional ultrasound acquisition was performed with a 3D-matrix transducer (Philips® X6-1 transducers, Philips Healthcare, Bothell, WA, USA).
Department of Vascular Surgery, Rigshospitalet
Copenhagen, Denmark
Abdominal aortic aneurysm measurement variance between novices and experts
The primary outcome was to test the variance of abdominal aortic aneurysm diameter measurements by comparing expert and novice ultrasound operators using conventional 2D-ultrasound and 3D-software assisted ultrasound.
Time frame: One week
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