Esaote Technos Ultrasound

We have been trying to sell the Technos locally for quite some time now with little success. Although, ESAOTE is one of the top 5 (Esaote is right there just behind the giants GE, Philips and Siemens, and shares the 4/5 rank with Toshiba) among the more than 30 different ultrasound manufacturers, the brand is less known in the Philippines (where Hitachi, Shimadzu and Medison are better known brands).

The Technos is one of the best ultrasound machines I have ever seen (consider that I have more than 16 years experience in Ultrasound). I believe that it has the best trans-vaginal probe in the world. The images from its linear probe are more than outstanding. Its abdominal probe provides good images both in the near and far fields. Yes, it doesn't have the nice-to-have features of other brands' top-of-the-line machines such as voice command and touch menu screen, but isn't image quality the most important feature?


The Technos

I know ESAOTE is also not that well known in the USA, although they have some nice installations there, where they are known as Biosound Esaote. So I am pleasantly surprised to see one blogger to have featured the Technos in his post (The Thyroid Blog). The blogger, a thyroid specialist from California, USA, is so generous with his praise of the Technos Ultrasound Machine as quoted below:

It is 2 months since I became the 7 th thyroidologist in the USA to own the Technos Partner Biosound Esaote Small Parts ultrasound, made in Italy. The machine is awesome. I can see and biospy 5 mm suspect cancer nodes, inject saline, and alcohol in thyroid cysts,and analyze nodules for cancer characteristics. Irregular borders, vascular invasion in the nodule, as well as size and echogenicity. The picture quality is as good as the $200,000 all purpose machine they make. I am finding more suspicious neck nodes with this machine, and can biopsy them as well. The guided needle into the node can be sent for cytology, but also washed into saline for Cancer markers,thyroglobulin, and calcitonin.Small suspect parathyroid masses, and cysts can be biopsied, and needle washed for parathyroid hormone. The nodule evaluation is more refined with this machine. For example, if one faces a patient with a goiter with 6 nodules, the cancer may not be the biggest or dominant one by size.This is the one we all would have biopsied in the past. By evaluating the factors most suggestive of tumor, by ultrasound, we can pick out the nodule most likely to harbor cancer, or the "real" dominant nodule. The lower risk nodules can be followed and only biopsied if they grow. The new age of thyroid evaluation for thyroid cancer by high resolution ultrasound is here. Moved to the back bench, is the old mainstay of thyriod cancer follow up, the Total Body I/131 Scan.

Dr.G.