Pocket ultrasound devices to perform EchoScopy

Recently a new category of handheld device has burgeoned with its advantages of the increased portability and affordability. These devices are smaller than usual portable models, which are often the size of a laptop computer. Currently, the smallest available handheld device is the Vscan™ (GE Healthcare), a pocket size ultrasound device, providing conventional B-mode and colour Doppler imaging (CDI) but does not possess the function of pulsed wave Doppler imaging. With a compact size, it is possible to retain it in a white coat pocket, like a stethoscope, and to use it as adjunctive tool for patient physical examination. Further ultrasound devices from other companies also exist; these are also hand-held or at most brought to the bedside with the support of a shoulder band or a small wheel car, working with batteries and without the need to be connected to a mains electrical socket. EFSUMB is currently striving to identify the level of clinical conditions in a non-cardiac setting that can be resolved by handheld or pocket size ultrasound scanners, primarily by physicians who have limited patient information but need to establish a clinical diagnosis e.g. in primary care. This basic ultrasound approach has been defined by EFSUMB as „EchoScopy”, to distinguish this use of basic ultrasound from conventional sonographic examination of abdominal organs. We are currently investigating the use of EchoScopy in daily routine use under strictly defined clinical conditions. Vscan™, as well other extremely portable ultrasound scanners, can in fact be applied at the bedside as part of the initial physical clinical examination of patients. The use can be separated into clinical divisions to screen for vascular, cardiac, thoracic and abdominal diseases, though it should not replace the usual echography when there are more complex clinical questions. The technique will not compete with the FAST concept (Focused Assessment with Sonography in Trauma (FAST)) but will find its eventual place as an extension of the routine physical examination [www.esfumb.org].