Page 91 - Ultrasonography in Prehospital and Emergency Medicine - Rein Ketelaars

Which ultrasound transducer type is best for diagnosing pneumothorax in pre-hospital care? 89
Conclusion
In conclusion, we found no difference in the effectiveness of detecting or excluding a pneu- mothorax between a high-frequency linear-array ultrasound transducer, a curved-array, and a phased-array transducer. Besides many indications for which it is essential, the linear-array transducer produces the best image quality in lung ultrasonography. Based only on image quality, the linear-array transducer might qualify as the preferred transducer for lung ultra- sonography and the preferred default in our prehospital setting.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the thoracic surgeons, scrub nurses, cardiothoracic anesthesiologists, nurse anesthetists, respiratory physicians, and respiratory nurse specialists of the Radboud university medical center for their invaluable assistance in the acquisition of the ultrasound clips.
We would like to thank Eva Cillessen for meticulously editing and cropping the ultrasound clips and Ewald Bronkhorst for his assistance with the statistical calculations. A sincere thank you to all the HEMS physicians and expert anesthesiology residents (Loes Didden and Michiel van Lieshout) for their assessment of the video clips.
Many thanks to Roel van Vugt and Jouke Landman for their diligent proofreading of the manuscript.
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