Fixed C-Arms and Their Uses

Throughout the world, many progressive hospitals have begun using fixed C-arms in operating room environments, as opposed to the more popular mobile C-arms. This movement has surfaced as a result of the physician movement towards collaborative surgeries, in which many medical specialists work together to perform complex procedures. The installation of a fixed C-arm system in the operating room allows for the ideal imaging environment for this approach. C-Arms have been used with growing frequency in the medical field since it was released as a technology in the 1950s.

Fixed C-Arms are employed for many different reasons. Some of the more common circumstances that might require the use of a C-Arm are: barium studies, fertility studies, therapeutic studies, cardiac studies, endoscopy studies, and angiography studies.

Single-plane systems consist of a single C-arm, while biplane systems comprise two C-arms mounted at a 90-degree angle in relation to each other. Fixed C-arm systems are used to guide surgeons performing interventional procedures. Modern flat-panel detector systems provide surgeons with superior image quality when performing complex, time-sensitive procedures.

Mobile C-arms are smaller than fixed C-arms, so that they can easily be transported to a variety of settings, as needed. As technology evolves, mobile C-arms increasingly are becoming more and more powerful.

While all of this is extremely helpful to for the medical professionals using the medical equipment, it is important to understand the importance of the C-arm to patients, themselves. C-arms are extremely precise in their readings and help to reduce the amount of discomfort that the patient feels. Using C-arms during various surgical or non-surgical procedures helps to minimize the need for more invasive procedures.

From a financial perspective, the use of C-arms leads to more cost-effective outpatient care in hospitals, as compared with more costly and time-consuming in-patient stays.

The versatility of C-arms is also something that is of primary importance to medical professionals. C-arm machines can be used during spinal, orthopedic and general surgeries; as well as for urological, vascular, neurovascular and cardiac applications. This versatility is just one of the many reasons that fixed C-arms are becoming more characteristically used in the majority of hospitals around the world.

Physicians unquestionably welcome the precise and instantaneous information that C-arm medical equipment is able to report, while x-ray lab technicians can take advantage of the simplicity of the C-arm system and the complex information that it reports so much better than previous technologies.

MedWOW is the multilingual, global medical equipment portal: specializing in providing a safe and secure environment for key players in the industry to conduct trade, as well as offering a large variety of related support services.

MedWOW currently features hundreds of complete C-arm systems, as well as thousands of C-arm parts in inventories throughout the world. It is also possible to post a buying request on MedWOW to search for a specific new or used C-arm system.

Uses for Ultrasound Elastography

Ultrasound elastography is based on the comparison of ultrasound images, when the tissue is forcefully compressed. The principle behind ultrasound elastography is to characterize the soft biological tissues using the latest ultrasound technology to obtain a sequence of images which are processed for the ultrasound elastography.

In the first step, motion estimation between two or more images is processed. The estimated displacement offers the possibility of obtaining detailed bend elastograms (images of tissue strain). A tumor or a suspicious cancerous growth is normally 5-28 times stiffer than the background of normal soft tissue. When a mechanical compression or vibration is applied, the tumor deforms less than the surrounding tissue. Therefore, the presence of a hard inclusion simulating a tumor of pathological tissue, within a phantom mimicking soft tissue, can be more easily identified which likely leads to an earlier cancer diagnosis. Elastograms have been shown to be affected by the degree of adherence of the tumor to its surroundings, indicating a potential to broaden elastography usage to tumor mobility characterization to improve diagnostic accuracy and surgical guidance.

Ultrasonic imaging is the most common medical imaging technique for producing elastograms. Investigations have been conducted using magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) and computed tomography. Nevertheless, ultrasound elastography has the advantages of being cheaper, faster and more portable than other imaging techniques.

Ultrasound elastography has become an efficient and easy-to-perform component of the breast ultrasound examination as tissue stiffness determinations of various types have been included in a number of high-resolution linear transducers.


Ultrasound elastography imaging performed during breast ultrasound is extremely helpful in evaluating breast lesions and selecting patients who need a biopsy, according to current research. It is non-invasive, it is quick and there is no radiation involved. Ultrasound elastography helps distinguish between cancerous and benign breast lesions, which reduce unnecessary biopsies. The technique involves pressing on the breast with an ultrasound probe to measure the firmness or resistance of the underlying tissue. Diagnostic ultrasound elastography can be performed at the same time as hand-held ultrasound and images can be viewed on a split screen, with the two-dimensional ultrasound image on the left and the ultrasound elastography image on the right. A cancerous area will be stiffer than the surrounding tissue, as determined by the ultrasound elastography. Using ultrasound elastography helps reduce unnecessary biopsies, as well as catching early cancers that may not have been otherwise detected.

MedWOW, the multilingual, global medical equipment portal specializes in providing a safe and secure environment for key players in the industry to conduct trade, as well as procuring support services.

MedWOW currently represents more than 3, 300 complete diagnostic ultrasound systems in inventory, as well as nearly 9,000 parts and accessories. These ultrasound units, when paired with simple add-on elastography units, can provide medical facilities with an excellent diagnostic tool. It is also possible to post a buying request on MedWOW’s to search for a new or used dedicated ultrasound elastography unit.

Linear Accelerators in Modern Medicine

The earliest radiation therapy machines used radioactive sources such as cobalt to produce the ionizing radiation needed to treat cancer patients. Some machines still use an active radiation source, but most radiation therapy today is accomplished with a linear accelerator. In principle, a linear accelerator works just like a computer monitor you are using to read this article. The electrons are accelerated by the gun in the back of the monitor and directed at the inside of the screen, where phosphors absorb the electrons and produce light. However, a medical linear accelerator produces a beam of electrons about 1,000 times more powerful than the standard computer monitor. The longer a linear accelerator is, the higher the energy of the beam it is able to generate.

Patients can be treated directly with this resulting electron beam, as long as the beam is spread out by scanning magnets in order to create a safe level of radiation. The medical linear accelerator spreads and directs the beam at the selected treatment area on the patient’s body.

A challenge with the electron beam is that it spreads quickly in tissue and cannot access deeper tissue for treatment. To solve this problem, many linear accelerator machines were designed with the option to switch to a mode in which x-ray photons are used for treatment. These can penetrate much more deeply, without harming surrounding tissue. To carry out this sensitive task, the electron beam is greatly increased in intensity and a metal foil followed by a beam flattener is placed in the path of the electron beam, which transforms the electron beam into an x-ray.

Many hospitals throughout the world are now using linear accelerators to benefit their patients by more effectively targeting the tumor area while reducing the most common side effects experienced by patients who are receiving radiation treatments. Some of the newest linear accelerators feature Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy, a pioneering development that uses dynamic multi-leaf collimation to modulate the intensity of the radiation beam. This allows physicians to spare healthy structures adjacent to the diseased areas, therefore focusing the radiation on the tumor alone and producing fewer side effects.

It is customary to find standard linear accelerators in radiation therapy facilities or cancer centers that offer radiation therapy treatment. These linear accelerators, which weigh between 5 10 tons, are fixed permanently to the floor of a well-shielded treatment room. There are also mobile linear accelerator models, consisting of three components: an accelerator mounted on a motor-driven gantry, a modulator and a control console. Even though the mobile linear accelerator is relatively lightweight in comparison with standard linear accelerators, they weigh about 2,500 lbs and require about 15 minutes to move into the operation room.

Everything you Need to Locate Replacement CT Parts

As you probably know, CT stands for computerized tomography, and the CT scanning system is an integrated network of CT parts that form a complex and important tool for imaging departments and clinics. Pictures of structures within the patient’s body are produced by a computer CT part that takes the data from multiple x-ray images and turns them into images on a screen. The CT scan has the capability to reveal a variety of soft-tissue and other structures that cannot be seen using conventional x-ray. Using the same amount of radiation as that of an standard x-ray machine, an entire slice of the body can be made visible with about 100x more clarity ─ thanks to the power of the system’s CT parts.

The tomograms, also known as cuts for CT systems are usually made 5mm to 10mm apart. The CT machine rotates 180 degrees around the patient's body, sending out thin X-ray beams at 160 different points. Crystal CT parts positioned at the opposite points of the beam pick up and record the absorption rates of the varying thicknesses of tissue and bone. The data is then passed on to a computer CT part that turns the information into a 2-dimensional, cross-sectional image.

Malfunctioning of any of the CT parts can cause downtime in your imaging center, causing a backlog of patients, which is avoidable if you have a trustworthy source easily available for locating replacement CT parts. For example, CT tube lifecycles are relatively short and are among the most highly used CT parts. This makes tubes some of the most important replacement CT parts for any CT scanner system, and knowing how to replace them on short notice is critical to the successful operation of your imaging facility.

Buying used CT parts can be uncomplicated and trouble-free if you know in advance the right way to go about finding replacement CT parts of all types, as you never know when you are going to need them. If you don’t know where and how to look, finding specific used CT parts can be a bit more challenging.

MedWOW has come up with an easy-to-use and wide-ranging search engine that can find CT parts easily, even allowing you to compare and contrast competitive offers on CT parts from dealers and manufacturers from all over the world, so you can take advantage and get the very best deal possible, including negotiating on packing, shipping, inspection and other associated CT parts services.

An alternative MedWOW option to finding replacement CT parts is the portal’s unique CT Part Finder Service. In order to best serve its international population of medical equipment professionals, physicians and technicians, MedWOW formed partnerships with several of the major used CT parts suppliers throughout the world. Therefore, they can supply healthcare professionals with any available CT part from any manufacturer, make and model if it is available in almost any inventory. This means that if you are searching for a specific used CT part and are unable to find it, the MedWOW CT Parts Finder will help you with your search, and probably find it for you, at no extra cost. This includes the full range of primary CT parts, including gantry, x-ray tube, banana detector arch, computer system and CT scanner table, as well as the secondary CT parts that need to be taken into consideration.

Another efficient way to hunt for CT parts is to post a buying request on MedWOW, by filling out an online form and giving as much information as possible about the CT part you need. MedWOW attracts thousands of sellers from all over the world and so you will quickly be sent competitive CT part quotes in a short amount of time.

The Beginners Guide to Finding MRI Parts

For an MRI system to work perfectly there must be synergy between the various MRI parts. Very frequently, MRI parts need to be exchanged, and certainly much before the entire system needs replacing. Keeping your imaging department in safe, patient-oriented and nowadays, even competitive shape is not an easy task, but it's important if you hope to offer the kind of services your patients need and expect. You're very much aware of how expensive used MRI parts can be. Yes, even seemingly simple MRI parts can run into thousands of dollars for good quality replacements.

The main functioning MRI parts of an MRI system include: one external magnet, RF (radio frequency) equipment, gradient coils and a computer. Other MRI part mechanisms include: an RF shield, a power supply, NMR probe, display unit, and a refrigeration unit. All of these MRI parts will need upgrading or replacing during the lifetime of the the MRI system, so it is important to do some basic research and know how to go about replacing these MRI parts on short notice, so you don’t cause any down time which can harm the function of your department, at the very least.

Many times, MRI parts of all kinds can be serviced and repaired, but when that isn’t possible, finding a trustworthy source is imperative. Since MRI systems are relatively complex, and quite unlike other imaging systems, it is important to find an imaging equipment expert who can guide you through the process.

A site that features MRI parts specialists from all over the world is MedWOW, which is a global platform for buying and selling medical equipment. In order to meet their goal of providing comprehensive medical equipment services, with a strong emphasis on used imaging parts, MedWOW developed three methods for locating and purchasing good-quality and guaranteed used MRI parts, all of which are available in a multilingual format which translates communications between buyer and seller, so it is possible to get competitive prices on MRI parts and related imaging equipment and services, even if it is on the other side of the world.

MedWOW’s unique Part Finder Service was created in order to best serve its global user base of medical equipment professionals. MedWOW partnered with dozens of the major used imaging parts suppliers in the world. In this way, they are able to supply healthcare professionals with any available used MRI part from any manufacturer, makes and model from anywhere in the world. This means that if you are searching for a specific used MRI part and you can’t find it anywhere, the MedWOW Parts Finder team will take over your search, and probably find it for you. This imaging parts finder service is completely free, so just fill in your request in as much detail as you can, and then you can sit back and relax and wait for quotes for your used imaging part.

Your second option in used MRI parts finders, is to use MedWOW’s all-inclusive search engine, which is built using copious filtering options, so you can search for just about any used imaging part and find it, even if it has changed names or manufacturers over the years.

Finally, the third ingenious choice is to post an MRI part buying request, by filling out a form and giving as much information as possible about the used imaging part that you seek. The portal attracts sellers from all over the world (10,500 visitors a day) so you will likely be sent a few competitive quotes for your selected MRI part to choose from.