http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/external/search.hosted.ap.org/wireCoreTool/Search?SITE=WILAC&query=Acuson >Miniature ultrasound machines are starting to make their way into >ordinary doctors' offices, where they may someday be as common as >stethoscopes and EKGs. A pocket-sized one weighing less than 2 pounds >hit the market last week... >The portable ultrasound devices are changing [evaluations and access]. >SonoSite Inc. of Bothell, Wash., came out with one in 1999. It was >followed by GE Healthcare, a suburban Milwaukee unit of General >Electric. They mostly are used in emergency rooms... >$10,000 Acuson P10 ... >Siemens Medical Solutions, the Malvern, Pa.-based unit of the German >company Siemens AG, initially will sell the device for traditional >heart imaging ... Just a few years ago the cheapest portable unit was $40,000. I don't think it will be all that long before these show up in regular veterinary and physicians' offices (albeit with training or with an arrangement with a radiologist who reads transmitted results). Sukie (not a vet) Recommended ferret health links: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/ http://ferrethealth.org/archive/ http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/ http://www.ferretcongress.org/ http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html [Posted in FML 5754]