Supersonic Imagine, a French ultrasound machine manufacturer developed its Aixplorer based upon the relatively new Elastography imaging mode. In particular Supersonic pioneered the use of ShearWave elastography, a superior technology to the conventional strain based elastography.

Elastography is the use of ultrasound to measure the elasticity of tissue and then color mapping that elasticity over a traditional grayscale 2D ultrasound image to allow medical professionals to discover tumors, liver disease and guide more effective biopsies. Areas that are less elastic show up as reds, and more elastic as blues, with a whole spectrum in between. This makes it much easier to not only pick out a small tumor in surrounding tissue, but then guide a needle to the central part of the mass for an effective biopsy. SuperSonic Imagine’s Aixplorer is still the best provider of ShearWave Elastography as it is a dedicated machine for this purpose. The Aixplorer can also provide Excellent 2D image quality for general imaging, women’s health and vascular applications.

SonoScape is one of the largest Chinese ultrasound machine manufacturers behind Mindray and alongside Chison. SonoScape has a broad range of Economy and Midrange portable ultrasound machines available. Pricing is very good, and features and image quality are acceptable. Reliability is an improvement over most other brands from China but still not up to the level of Samsung or Alpinion. Workflow continues to improve as well as the design.

Sonosite has built a very strong following by dominating a single niche; rugged, small portable ultrasound machines. SonoSite was originally designed for military use and that rugged appeal has given this brand its identity. Sonosite never had the best image quality or features, but in small size, portability and durability they were not matched till GE launched the Vscan years later, and to this day no other brand tries to match SonoSite’s rugged approach. The Titan, Micromaxx, M-Turbo, Edge, and Edge II are all newer and newer versions of the same philosophy of good to acceptable cardiovascular and general imaging performance in the same smaller-than-a-laptop format. The NanoMaxx is a new tablet style form factor built to compete with the GE Venue 40.