J Korean Soc Med Ultrasound.  2002 Sep;21(3):165-170.

Comparison of Quality of Ultrasonographic Image of the Pancreas: Tissue Harmonic Image vs. Fundamental Image

• Seo YL
• Choi CS
• Kim HC
• Yoon DY
• Han DH
• Bae SH

Abstract

PURPOSE: To compare the quality of ultrasonographic (US) images, tissue harmonic image (THI) versus fundamental image (FI), of the pancreas.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
During a recent 2-month period, forty one patients with the normal pancreas on US were included. All of them were free of abnormal clinical and laboratory findings suggestive of pancreatic disease. US was performed by an abdominal radiologist with a 2.5-5 MHz convex-array transducer (Sequoia 512; Acuson, Mountain View, Calif. U.S.A.). Comparison of THI and FI of the pancreas was done for the following parameters: conspicuity, internal architecture, and delineation range. Grading was made by the consensus of two abdominal radiologists with a three-point scale. Statistical analysis was done using Wilcox signed rank sum test.
RESULTS
For the evaluation of the US image quality of the pancreas THI showed better conspicuity (p=0.0130), clearer internal architecture (p=0.0029) and superior delineation range (p=0.0191) than those of FI.
CONCLUSION
THI appears to show a superior image quality than FI in evaluation of the pancreas.

MeSH Terms

Consensus
Humans
Pancreas*
Pancreatic Diseases
Transducers