Which Ultrasound?

RE: Which Ultrasound?

Liz Barton — Sun, 05 Aug 2018 20:29:24 GMT

[quote user="robloxley"](e.g. Imotek had a range of Esoate machines when we looked)[/quote]

We have MyLab Esoate at both places I work at, and both from Imotek. We have micro convex and phased array probes and I love them for small abdomens/hearts, but limited for both in larger dogs.

Worth considering maintenance budget ongoing from whoever you buy from.

RE: Which Ultrasound?

Chris Milligan — Sat, 04 Aug 2018 19:29:15 GMT

you got a good deal on those probes Roland.

We picked up a 2nd-hand-never-used curvilinear 5-8MHz and a 2.33-6.6MHz linear for our Mylab for $10K. don't know where i'd be without that linear on the really big dogs

RE: Which Ultrasound?

Roland Bulkyn-Rackowe — Wed, 01 Aug 2018 16:57:29 GMT

Forgot to mention, the phased array was ex dem / reconditioned. We just use that one for larger dogs.

RE: Which Ultrasound?

Roland Bulkyn-Rackowe — Wed, 01 Aug 2018 16:34:21 GMT

+1 for the Mylab. We demod the GE Logiq machine which had great image quality but the frequencies of the probes meant that we'd need a few to cover all of our work and patients, bringing the cost to about £35k.
At the lower end we checked out a Chison machine from Photon Surgical Systems. This was OK for the £10k asking but not wonderful.

We settled on an end of line new Mylab machine. We bought a microconvex, a lower frequency phased array and a nice linear probe, all for around £14k. That was in January this year and it's pretty much paid for itself in our 4 man practice. It gets much more use than the old machine as it's much easier to use and produces much better images.

RE: Which Ultrasound?

Chris Milligan — Sat, 28 Jul 2018 20:33:33 GMT

Esaote's Mylab series is amazing for people new to ultrasound - you don't need all the bells and whistles and atomic level resolution to make diagnoses if you're relatively new to ultrasound - they're affordable, and very easy to pick up and user friendly. The Mylab 5 was very popular about 5 years though has been superseded by newer models. If you can pick one up for cheap with some brand new or mint condition probes you'll be well away.

If new is what you want the Logiq e series is exceptional though the learning curve is quite a bit steeper and the quality may be beyond what you're looking for as a general practice workhorse unless you have specialists inhouse or visiting, or a particularly keen member of staff who is likely to go all the way with ultrasound.

I would advise anyone even remotely serious about ultrasound not to go in for the cheapo highly portable units that are bash proof. they're fine for a pyo or a splenic mass but you're not going to get a thorough look at the abdomen and know you've done a good job.

RE: Which Ultrasound?

Sarah Keir — Sat, 28 Jul 2018 19:56:32 GMT

Did similar research last year. You will be looking to spend £20k if you want a fairly decent machine with a microconvex plus phased-array probe and some cardiac modules but without the full spec of high end ones. Sonoscape are cheaper and OK for the price but you may feel limited by the quality if you get doing lots of hearts. My lat job bought one about 7 years ago and still growing strong but the manual was next to useless (direct translation from chinese) so had to work it out and write my own!

RE: Which Ultrasound?

Rob Loxley — Sat, 28 Jul 2018 14:46:11 GMT

Draw up a shortlist based on your budget (you know how many scans you do, what you charge, how long you want to get payback etc) and get them out on a proper demo. Probe choice is worth considering what you need (will one microconvex do you, or two probes, do you need phased array?) / will use; if you have multiple probes I'd go for a machine that has a port per probe to avoid swapping over. One thing we found when shopping was the cost difference between 'western' machines (GE, Esoate etc) and Chinese machines (Mindray, Sonoscape) at similar specs. We universally didn't get on with the purely touchscreen-driven machine we looked at. Are you happy to buy reconditioned (e.g. Imotek had a range of Esoate machines when we looked)?

RE: Which Ultrasound?

Rach — Sat, 28 Jul 2018 13:39:25 GMT

Another mylab fan (although I can’t remember which model we have). Great for abdomens, and more than adequate for my (admittedly basic) echo abilities.

RE: Which Ultrasound?

David Mills — Fri, 27 Jul 2018 23:30:38 GMT

Yep mylab40, great machine, you won't go wrong.

RE: Which Ultrasound?

Julie Innes — Fri, 27 Jul 2018 23:15:38 GMT

Thanks for that Rob! I'll have a proper nosey once I'm back from holiday, we will have to live without an ultrasound till then

I'm moving away from grieving for my old ultrasound unit to becoming a little excited about new prospects!

RE: Which Ultrasound?

Rob Davis — Fri, 27 Jul 2018 18:39:16 GMT

We upgraded to a Mylab 40 vet a couple of years ago and we have been very happy with it. I can't remember cost, but it is vastly better than the machine we had previously. My scanning abilities are rather limited, but my colleagues are very happy with cardiac scans on this machine.