SonoSite’s M-Turbo® key to emergency echocardiography

PRLog (Press Release) - May 25, 2011 - Royal Brompton Hospital in London, home to the UK’s largest specialist heart and lung centre, uses a SonoSite M-Turbo® point-of-care ultrasound system for emergency focused transthoracic echocardiography. Dr Susanna Price, consultant cardiologist and intensivist, explained: “The M­Turbo is solely dedicated to emergency use on the intensive care unit (ICU). Its extremely fast boot-up time is a great advantage in life-threatening situations where speed is critical, and being equipped with both a cardiac package and a vascular probe means it serves a dual purpose.”

“We use ultrasound guidance for all our central venous access, for performing pleural drainage and, in emergency situations we use the M-Turbo for focused transthoracic echocardiography. On occasions we have retrieved patients from other units where the availability of ultrasound equipment including echocardiography capability cannot be guaranteed, and the M-Turbo has been very useful as a robust, hand-carried system in these circumstances.”

Dr Price concluded: “The M-Turbo’s facility to record image clips for subsequent review is an essential requirement. It provides a record of diagnosis, evidence for medico-legal purposes, and, being easy to use, the system is very good for training junior ICU doctors who are just starting to use focused echocardiography.”

For more information about SonoSite products, please contact:
Alexander House, 40A Wilbury Way, Hitchin SG4 0AP
T +44 (0)1462 444 800, F +44 (0)1462 444 801
ukresponse@sonosite.com    www.sonosite.com

About SonoSite
SonoSite, Inc. (www.sonosite.com) is the innovator and world leader in bedside and point-of-care ultrasound and an industry leader in ultra high-frequency micro-ultrasound technology and impedance cardiography equipment. Headquartered near Seattle, the company is represented by fourteen subsidiaries and a global distribution network in over 100 countries. SonoSite's small, lightweight systems are expanding the use of ultrasound across the clinical spectrum by cost-effectively bringing high-performance ultrasound to the point of patient care.
SonoSite, Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of SonoSite, Inc. based in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, oversees a direct sales distribution network in the UK and provides sales and marketing support for SonoSite's European offices.

About Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust
Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust is a national and international specialist heart and lung centre based in Chelsea, London and Harefield, Middlesex. The Trust helps patients from all age groups who have heart and lung problems and is the country's largest centre for the treatment of adult congenital heart disease. For details visit www.rbht.nhs.uk