Siemens Healthineers Launches Acuson Sequoia to Address Industry Ultrasound Challenges

Siemens Healthineers has announced the launch of its new ultrasound system, the Acuson Sequoia. The new Acuson Sequoia, a general imaging ultrasound system, was developed in response to one of the most prevalent challenges in ultrasound imaging today: the imaging of different sized patients with consistency and clarity. With its new Deep Abdominal Transducer (DAX), a new high-powered architecture, and innovative updates to elastography and contrast-enhanced ultrasound, the new Acuson Sequoia produces penetration up to 40 cm. With its powerful architecture and innovative features, the new Acuson Sequoia expands precision medicine by enabling high-resolution imaging that adapts to patients’ size and personal characteristics, contributing to more confident diagnosis.
 
“Ultrasound imaging has been plagued by variability. Patients’ varied physical characteristics and user-dependent variabilities can impact a clinician’s ability to deliver an accurate diagnosis,” said Robert Thompson, Head of Ultrasound at Siemens Healthineers. “With the new Acuson Sequoia, Siemens Healthineers provides users with a solution that enables real-time imaging for varying patient types, including those with high BMI, without sacrificing image quality and potentially reducing the need for repeat scans and unclear diagnoses.”
 
Expanding the Reach of Ultrasound Imaging
According to the World Health Organization, 1.9 billion people globally are reported as overweight with 650 million people classified as obese (with a BMI above 30). Because ultrasound imaging relies on the sending and receiving of echo signals to produce images, patients with more adipose tissue are more difficult to image. The deeper an echo signal needs to penetrate, the more attenuation occurs, resulting in image quality degradation. In attempting to overcome these challenges, clinicians have traditionally had to compromise on frame rates, resolution, or penetration of their ultrasound imaging.
 
In response, Siemens Healthineers built the entirely new Acuson Sequoia system to adapt to the “BioAcoustic Variations” of each patient, characteristics that include tissue density, stiffness, and absorption. The new Acuson Sequoia provides high-resolution InFocus imaging throughout the entire field of view, from the near field to the far field, in real-time. Therefore, there is no need to adjust the focal point of the scan, resulting in faster scan time without compromising frame rates and resolution. The new ultrasound system also offers high resolution color flow, up to three times the sensitivity,^1,3 and up to 20 percent deeper penetration.³
 
More Power for Clearer Images
In addition to increased rates of obesity, prevalence of liver disease is also on the rise.^1,5 Clinicians utilize ultrasound elastography to determine shear wave speed, a parameter correlated with tissue stiffness in the liver which can correlate to chronic disease progression. Imaging in these patients can be challenging, particularly in larger patients where the signals are attenuated. The innovative power architecture of the new Acuson Sequoia provides six times the energy capacity available for shear wave elastography, enabling imaging at greater depths and a reduction in image variability.³
 
The BioAcoustic technology of Acuson Sequoia also improves Contrast Enhanced Ultrasound (CEUS) bubble longevity.⁴ Contrast enhanced ultrasound uses microbubble-based contrast agents to improve the visualization and assessment of lesions.² With the new Acuson Sequoia system, the view time of contrast agents is significantly longer, allowing clinicians more time to scan for additional incidental lesions during their examinations and with up to twice the sensitivity.⁴
 
Improving Workflows with User-Centric Technologies
As the most widely used medical imaging modality,6 ultrasound scanning preferences vary from user to user, making it a highly-personal experience. In a collective effort to eliminate variability and long-term ergonomic injuries, Siemens Healthineers hosted 170 workshops with 365 worldwide ultrasound users to create a platform designed by the user, for the user. The new Acuson Sequoia improves workflow by introducing user-friendly features, such as gesture detecting transducers—activated by touch, automated protocols, and streamlined registration which adapts to user preferences over time. A new ergonomically designed InTune transducer family reduces operator stress while increasing comfort.
 
A unique new capability among diagnostic ultrasound systems, “UltraArt” provides several image choices which are automatically generated with a user’s preferred image parameter settings, right on the touch screen. The user can select the image that best matches the patient’s BioAcoustic characteristics, avoiding manual adjustment of multiple individual image parameters.
 
The new Acuson Sequoia offers innovative technologies, unique transducers, and user-defined features to enhance workflow and personalize medicine.
 
References
¹ Data on file
² American College of Radiology CEUS LI-RADS Criteria 2017
³ Compared to ACUSON S3000
⁴ Compared to ACUSON Sequoia 512
⁵ Landro, L. (2017, November 22). Liver disease is on the rise, and many don’t know they’re at risk. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved June 13, 2018, from https://www.marketwatch.com/story/liver-disease-is-on-the-rise-and-many-dont-know-theyre-at-risk-2017-11-22
⁶ Imaging Educational Course – Ultrasound Miniaturizaton. (n.d.). The American Association of Physicists in Medicine. Retrieved from https://www.aapm.org/meetings/amos2/pdf/59-17269-19414-150.pdf.