Ultrasound Test Equipment

Testing Device Assures Quality
Sonora Medical Systems (Longmont, Colo) unveils FirstCall 2000, a portable high-speed testing device designed to measure the relevant acoustic and electrical parameters of most electronic array transducers produced by Acuson, ATL/Advance Technology Laboratories, HP Agilent Technologies, Siemens Medical Systems, and Toshiba Medical Systems.

FirstCall allows clear tracking of performance changes while documenting the key indicators of probe-related problems before the user can see changes in image quality and while the probe can be cost-effectively repaired. FirstCall comes with adapters, device drivers, software, PC cable, and user documentaion.

For further information about FirstCall, contact Sonora Medical Systems at (888) 476-6672, or visit the company’s Web site at www.4sonora.com.

UW 4 Ultrasound Wattmeter Offers Affordable Accuracy
The UW 4 Ultrasound Wattmeter from Fluke Biomedical (Carson City, Nev) is a portable, battery-operated device that measures the output of therapeutic ultrasound devices in the range of 0.5 MHz to 10 MHz. The UW 4 uses a simple and accurate strain gauge to measure ultrasound. The strain gauge, in conjunction with an open-tank design, yields a wattmeter that is reliable, accurate, linear, easy to calibrate, and affordable.

If you would like more information about UW 4 or other Fluke Biomedical test equipment, please contact Fluke at (800) 648-7952, or visit Fluke’s Web site at www.flukebiomedical.com.

Ultrasound Wattmeter Tests Diagnostic and Therapeutic Transducers
The rad unit from METRON US (Grand Rapids, Mich) will test both diagnostic and therapeutic ultrasound transducers for output power in milliwatts and watts. The high resolution and wide power range of rad make it possible to test both types of ultrasound with a single unit. The unit uses a high-accuracy friction-free magnetic sensor to measure ultrasound. Additional features of the rad unit include digital display, automatic/manual zeroing, self test, pulsed or continuous power measurements, easy operation, battery power for portability, RS232 port, transducer clamp, and centering rings.

For more information, contact METRON at (888) 8METRON, or visit the company’s Web site at www.metron.us. 

Ultrasound Quality Assurance
The CIRS (Norfolk, Va) series of ultrasound phantoms contains specific, known test objects for repeatable qualitative assessment of ultrasound scanner performance. Every phantom comes with an unconditional 90-day money-back guarantee and a 4-year written warranty that can be renewed every 2 years thereafter for as long as you own the phantom.

The model 40 is constructed from a patented material that that is more elastic than other materials and allows more pressure to be applied to the scanning surface without damage to the material. Model 40 was designed to allow for assessment of uniformity, axial and lateral resolution, depth calibration, dead-zone measurement, and registration within two different backgrounds of 0.5 dB/cm/MHz and 0.7 dB/cm/MHz.

For more information about the Model 40 and other CIRS phantoms call (800) 617-1177, or visit the company’s Web site www.cirsinc.com.