How does the image quality compare with 2D ultrasound?
People generally accept that there is a slight degradation in the image quality due to the focusing of the transducer for parallel processing, but that’s made up for by the fact that we’re able to focus in all three dimensions rather than just two. For the actual task of detecting a tumour or lesion, because you’re able to focus in all three directions, the loss of a little spatial resolution in two directions is compensated for by the 3D resolution. It’s not clear whether there is any overall loss of quality – perhaps there is a little bit of a trade-off with high-speed 3D. There’s always room for improvement, however, and many, many people are working to improve ultrasound image quality. We’ve not yet reached an upper limit. How is this technology being used commercially? Most foetal imaging is done in 3D now – the technology of high-speed 3D ultrasound has almost totally overtaken everything in obstetrics. In cardiology also, probably a very high percentage of ultrasound scanners ar
