Evaluation of Noncommercial Ultrasound Gels for Use in Resource-Limited Settings.

Authors

• Alexandra M Vinograd
• Abiola Fasina
• Anthony J Dean
• Frances Shofer
• Nova L Panebianco
• Resa E Lewiss
• Saurabh Gupta
• A K Raja Rao
• Patricia C Henwood

Publication/Presentation Date

2-1-2019

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: Ultrasound (US) is increasingly used in settings where commercial US gel is unavailable. This study evaluated noncommercial gel recipes compared to commercial gel.

METHODS: A search for US gel formulations revealed 6 recipes. Half-strength commercial gel and a modified glucomannan recipe were also tested. Nine gels, including commercial gel, were tested in Liberia and the United States. In each session, 2 physician sonologists evaluated 9 gels on 2 models, obtaining videos from the hepatorenal space with a curvilinear transducer, the cardiac parasternal long view with a phased array transducer, and the left basilic vein with a linear transducer. The sonologists and models, who were blinded to gel identity, made independent quantitative and qualitative gel evaluations comparing the test gel to commercial gel. Two physician sonologists who were blinded to the gel identities and a US operator reviewed the images and rated their quality. An analysis of variance in repeated measures was performed to test for differences in the overall score, real-time quality, and other characteristics. Post hoc pairwise comparisons to commercial gel were performed with a Tukey-Kramer adjustment. Inter- and intra-rater reliability was calculated for the image review.

RESULTS: Commercial gel earned a perfect score. Compared to commercial gel, xanthine gum gel scored highest, followed by half-strength commercial gel. Hot concentrated glucomannan and cold glucomannan gel were found to be significantly worse than commercial gel. No significant difference was found between images based on the gel used on the image review.

CONCLUSIONS: No significant difference in image quality was found between commercial and noncommercial gels on US image review.

Volume

38

Issue

2

First Page

371

Last Page

377

ISSN

1550-9613

Published In/Presented At

Vinograd, A. M., Fasina, A., Dean, A. J., Shofer, F., Panebianco, N. L., Lewiss, R. E., Gupta, S., Rao, A. K. R., & Henwood, P. C. (2019). Evaluation of Noncommercial Ultrasound Gels for Use in Resource-Limited Settings. Journal of ultrasound in medicine : official journal of the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine, 38(2), 371–377. https://doi.org/10.1002/jum.14697

Disciplines

Business Administration, Management, and Operations | Health and Medical Administration | Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods

PubMedID

30043460

Department(s)

Administration and Leadership

Document Type

Article