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Hitachi Medical Systems America, Inc. (HMSA) provides a complete range of ultrasound-based systems covering the entire spectrum from compact black and white systems at entry price level up to premium class systems for the most demanding users. As a full-line supplier of medical imaging equipment in Japan, Hitachi Medical Corporation (HMC) founded HMSA to provide a direct link to the U.S. marketplace. Hitachi consolidates his distribution channels in the US by transferring the Hitachi line of Ultrasound products to HMSA in October of 2002. HMSA is responsible for the sales, marketing and service of all Hitachi Ultrasound products in the United States.

Ultrasound Systems:

Huygens principle states that an expanding sphere of waves behaves as if each point on the wave front were a new source of radiation of the same frequency and phase. The principle explains how a flat ultrasound transducer can transmit a narrow ultrasound beam, which in the near field is confined to the dimensions of the transducer surface.
Spherical wavelets are emitted from numerous point sources on the transducer surface. They interfere to form a narrow, slightly converging beam of ultrasound in the near field. The wavefronts in the beam are nearly parallel. A precondition for this interference is that the transducer surface is much larger than the ultrasound wavelength.

See also Interference Artifact.

From GE Healthcare.;
'The System of Choice for General Imaging
Imagine a leading-edge ultrasound system so versatile that it can meet the demands of virtually any clinical setting. With the LOGIQ® 9, you'll have a high-performance system capable of multi-dimensional imaging for a full range of clinical applications - from abdominal to breast to vascular imaging. And an ergonomic design that improves scanning comfort and clinical work flow. Now, imagine what LOGIQ® 9 could do for you and your patients.'

In June 2007 Tyco International Ltd. completed the separation of its healthcare business, which is named Covidien. Mallinckrodt, Inc. is now part of Covidien Ltd. The company makes and distributes products for respiratory care; bulk and dosage pharmaceuticals, primarily for pain relief and addiction therapy; and imaging agents for magnetic resonance, ultrasound, x-ray, and nuclear medicine applications. With worldwide manufacturing and distribution facilities and sales offices, Mallinckrodt, Inc. sells its products worldwide.
Albunex was one of the first marketed ultrasound contrast agents. Currently, Mallinckrodt discontinued the manufacturing and development of ultrasound contrast agents.

Ultrasound Contrast Agents:

Microbubbles filled with air or inert gases are used as contrast agents in ultrasound imaging. Compression and rarefaction created by an ultrasound wave insonating a gas-filled microbubble along with the mechanical index of the ultrasonic beam lead to volume pulsations of the bubbles, and it is this change that results in the signal enhancement.
Microbubbles have diameters from 1 μm to 10 μm and a thin flexible or rigid shell composed of albumin, lipid, or polymer confining a gas such as nitrogen, or a perfluorocarbon. These microbubbles can cross the pulmonary capillaries and have a serum half-life of a few minutes. Microbubbles in the 1-10 μm range have their resonance at the frequencies used in diagnostic ultrasound (1−15MHz). Smaller bubbles resonate at higher frequencies. Caused by this coincidence, they are such effective reflectors.
The intrinsic compressibility of microbubbles is approximately 17,000 times more than water, and they are very strong scatterers of ultrasound. Under acoustic pressure the vibrating bubble radius may have a conventional linear response or a harmonic non-linear response. Microbubbles usually increase the Doppler signal amplitude by up to 30 dB.