Clinical application of three-dimensional sonography in internal medicine

Three-dimensional sonography represents a development of non-invasive diagnostic imaging by real-time two-dimensional sonography. The use of transparent rotating scans, comparable to a block of glass, generates a three-dimensional effect. The first clinical application of this technique was in the field of gynecology and obstetrics, namely in prenatal diagnostics. In this study we describe its first application in internal medicine. In preliminary examinations on healthy volunteers we obtained specific processing data for optimal imaging results. This was followed by secondary examinations on 123 patients who had previously undergone conventional sonography with pathological findings. In more than 75% of the cases examined we found an optimal reproduction of sonographic findings with respect to the evaluation criteria developed by us for the three dimensional imaging of processed data. With the inclusion of measurement parameters such as distance determination and volume measurements the data gathered will allow the generation of reproducible results. Future studies will confirm the value of this method in diagnostic imaging.