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Cranial suture simulator for ultrasound diagnosis of craniosynostosis
Anh-Vu Ngo1, Raymond W Sze, Marguerite T Parisi
1University of Washington, 134 Mary Gates Hall, Seattle, WA 98195-2810, USA. anh-vu.ngo@seattlechildrens.org
Background:
In evaluating the effectiveness of ultrasound as a screening tool for craniosynostosis it was discovered that sonologists and sonographers needed more experience scanning and visualizing cranial sutures on ultrasound.
Objective:
To create an ultrasound simulator to train radiologists and technologists to locate and recognize patent and fused cranial sutures in children.
Materials And Methods:
The hypoechoic appearance of patent sutures was simulated by cutting lines into life-sized plastic doll heads and filling them with a commercial hypoechogenic material. Fused hyperechoic sutures were simulated by not cutting into the hard plastic region of a suture. The simulator's teaching value was evaluated on three radiology residents and three fellows. Subjects performed pre-training scans on unknown simulators, received feedback and an opportunity to scan a training simulator, and then performed post-training scans on random unknown simulators. Accuracy was recorded as percentage of correctly demonstrated sutures.
Results:
The suture simulator reproduces the sonographic appearance of patent and fused cranial sutures. Accuracy of acquisition, interpretation, and overall diagnosis increased from 64 to 91%, 79 to 91%, 61 to 97%, respectively, between pre and post training scans.
Conclusion:
An ultrasound simulator can reproduce the appearance of patent and fused cranial sutures in children and can be used to train radiologists and technologists in the performance of a screening protocol.
