Samsung-Medison SonoAce R7 Review

Samsung Medison SonoAce R7 

Tested with 3D/4D Ultrasound & OBGYN

Price:             Contact us for information (sorry we don’t like to put the price we paid online)

Year:              2011

Software:      1.02.00.0728

Options:        4D, 3D XI, Dynamic MR, & DICOM

From the manufacturer: (Scroll down for review)

Design 

– Slim & Compact Design

– 17 Inch LCD Monitor

– Control Panel Up/Down Mechanism

– Backlit Keyboard

– Simple Control Panel

– Front and rear handles

– 4 swivel wheels

Functionality

– Full Spectrum Imaging

– Dynamic MR / Dynamic MR +

– Speckle Reduction Filter

– Quick Scan

– Auto IMT

– Post Processing

– Post measurement

– Full user customization

Connectivity

– Sonoview Pro – Off-line Analysis

– DICOM 3.0

– USB Printers

– DVD Recording & Writing

– Backup, Export, Transfer

– USB Flash Memory

– USB ECG Module

Multi-Beam Imaging

Multi-Beam Imaging is a technique involving creating several scan lines of images in one TX. The Multi-Beam technique is possible through digital beam-forming, and is a function that cannot be done with existing analog beam-forming methods.

Synthetic Aperture

Synthetic aperture control is a method for overcoming the limits of the physical channel by using software. As shown in the diagram, to create one scan line, the TX and RX are performed twice.

Harmonic Imaging

The basic theory of harmonic imaging is that body tissue reflects ultrasound signals at frequencies at twice the scanning frequency, or the second harmonic of the scanning frequency. Samsung Medison’s Harmonic Imaging is an advanced version of conventional harmonic imaging.

Full Spectrum Imaging™

Spectrum imaging is designed for imaging by using the entire frequency territory that the probe supports, no matter how the TX frequency is designated. The frequency range can be broadened for better penetration and resolution.

Speckle Reduction Filter™

The SRF function reduces speckle artifacts and low signal artifacts in the background and in organs. The resulting image has a more clearer image than the original image.

DynamicMR™

DynamicMR™ significantly reduces artifacts such as misleading speckles and noise of a 2D ultrasound image, through an innovative second-stage filtering by Object Filtering and Pixel Filtering.

AutoIMT™

Automated measurement of the intima-media thickness of the carotid artery wall is a widely-used function. It provides instant measurement and the Mean, Max, Standard Deviation and the Quality Index at the touch of a single button.

(Samsung Medison USA. SonoAce R7 Ultrasound Machine.” SonoAce R7, Ultra-Compact Ultrasound Machine. Samsung Medison USA. Web. 09 Mar. 2012. <http://www.samsungmedisonusa.com/ultrasound/general-imaging/sonoace-r7/index.jsp>.)

REVIEW:

Shocked… That was my first impression of the new SonoAce R7, and I’m happy to say this. The reason I was so shocked was based on my previous experiences with past models put out by Medison. In the past, the only time that I would touch a Medison was really by accident. (Remember that we primarily do 3D/4D ultrasound when taking this into account. As well as the fact that we are HUGE GE Voluson fans.) In the past Medison products were known for poor images, laggy refresh rates, an ugly huge box/housing, and are extremely difficult to tweak to get images that look half decent; well that is no longer the situation.

When you first walk into a room with the Samsung Medison SonoAce R7, you start to think that maybe someone is going to wheel the machine in later. The R7 is TINY, sleek, and plain out sexy! It has a beautiful thin 17-inch LCD monitor, sitting on top of a small perfectly organized keyboard and control panel. All of this sits on top of a slender and skinny box. The machine is a nice bright white and mellow gray in color with orange color accents. The control panel is set up much like all the new Samsung Medison products.

After the shock of seeing one of the first eye pleasing ultrasound machines was starting to wear off, our first patient entered the room (typical size mom, 30 weeks pregnant.) We decided to do the first scan with strictly the stock 2D and 3D/4D settings provided on the machine… The 2D looked absolutely grand… The 3D/4D was a completely different story! With close to 10 years of 3D/4D scanning under our belts, we had a hard time figuring out what the 3D image was of. We could obviously tell by looking at the split screen that we had an ideal 2D image but the 3D/4D image just wouldn’t produce correctly. We were about to give up on Medison again and throw in the towel. Then we figured we had enough invested in the machine that we should try to figure it out… AND BOY O BOY DID WE!!!

After changing several settings in both the 2D settings as well as in the 3D/4D settings we were amazed at the difference in image quality. It was like night and day. We continued to tweak and make changes, especially in the 3D/4D settings, and ended up with great photos.

One major highlight on this machine is the Dynamic MR, if it wasn’t for this function the images wouldn’t be nearly as crisp or spot on for 3D/4D. Most people assume that the Dynamic MR will help with the 2D mainly and to be honest we thought the same thing. We were so wrong. 3D/4D images without the Dynamic MR on lacked definition and the wow factor. The moment you turn it on, it’s like you are scanning on a completely different machine.

When testing this machine we had 10 different women come in. The women ranged from 15 weeks up to 35 weeks. They varied in body mass size, placenta location and racial demographics. We tried to get a good sample base so that we could test the machine on true-life situations.

We will describe the image quality based on gestation weeks.

15-20 weeks: We were not impressed with the 3D/4D at this stage. It was much like older Medisons or even older GE products. The images were very boney and it was difficult to compensate. To be fair though, on most machines this stage doesn’t look great due to the lack of fat on the baby, but the Medison seemed to fair worse than some other machines.

20-24 weeks: The images were much better than 15-20 weeks, but still left some room for improvement.

25 plus weeks: WOW! This is where this machine is awesome. The SonoAce R7 produced some of the best images that we have ever seen! There was so much detail in the babies face, hands and feet. After seeing these images I hope other companies (cough cough… GE) can work on getting the same detail.

Overall 3D/4D image quality is good. The Samsung Medison products use a different rendering color scheme and texture then say GE does, but this is what allows the Medison to create such great 25 plus week images with so much detail.

Ease of use:

This is always a hard one to test. What we did to see how easy this machine is to learn and work on; is we brought in a nurse who had NO ultrasound experience at all. By her having no experience it allowed us to start from scratch without her having any preconceived notions from other machines.

We were able to teach her the basic functions of the machine, how to obtain a 2D side profile, and how to get basic 3D/4D ultrasounds in less than 2 days! This is impart due to the fact that we created new programs and setting so that she wouldn’t have to change very many settings, but she did great.

I would have to say from her experience on the machine as well as ours this is a very easy machine to use.

Conclusion:

All and all this is a great machine, especially since it is brand new and comes with a manufacturers’ warranty. The machine is small and sleek and it produces great images.

Things to think about… If you plan to do 3D/4D ultrasound; are you looking for a machine that produces great 2D images throughout the pregnancy and killer 3D/4D images later in the pregnancy (25 plus weeks)… If so, this machine maybe for you. If you want to and plan to do a lot of your 3D/4D earlier in the pregnancy (15-24 weeks) just keep in mind that this machine does produce boney images that are the perfect quality.

We are excited about the changes that Samsung has brought to Medison and we hope to see further advancement in their 2D/3D/4D ultrasound platforms to come.

Feel Free to contact us with any questions about this machines.