Philips ultrasound upgrade targets breast imaging

Enhancements in breast imaging mark the latest ultrasound upgrade from Philips Healthcare. Tissue aberration correction technology and algorithms built into the Vision 2009 upgrade for its iU22 radiological flagship are part of an integrated effort to better define tissue in fatty breasts, according to the company. An enabling technology is the Philips PureWave transducer and its coded beamformer, which have been present on earlier technologies.

Tissue aberration correction, which was devised initially to look at obese patients, compensates for speed of sound variations of dense tissue, improving detail resolution and conspicuity of lesion details. Another major addition of Vision 2009 is the VL13-5 high-frequency volume linear transducer, which is clinically optimized for breast, thyroid, carotid, and general applications.