Cleveland Family Study
10.6 Equipment
A linear array, preferably broadband, scanhead with an operating frequency greater than 7.5 MHz (the greater the better) will be required to consistently visualize both the anterior and posterior intima. The scanhead will be no wider than 40mm.
The ultrasound system should have the following capabilities:
- Vascular exam presets and calculations package
- Triplex scanning with steerable Doppler
- Spectral Doppler trace function (above and below baseline) preferably auto-trace, ideally a real-time Doppler waveform analysis package
- Minimum of two infinitely adjustable focal zones
- High resolution, high frame rate, acquisition zoom function that is capable of enlarging a 1.5 cm wide x 1 cm deep area to full screen size - 8X magnification preferred, 4X magnification is the minimum accepted
- Built-in automatic ECG
- S-VHS video cassette recorder
- Color video printer set to print one image per page (optional)
- Accurate on-screen digital clock that is always displayed in the same location regardless of the ultrasound operating mode
Brachial ultrasounds (FMD and NTG) will be completely recorded and annotated on S-VHS videocassette tape. A high frequency transducer with at least 7.5-8MHz is required (≥ 8MHz is preferred). There should be less than 5% overall arterial diameter variation and same locations and interfaces will be used for baseline and flow-mediated and NTG images to facilitate side-by-side comparison.