PolyU Device To Make Children's Spine Scans Easier

Researchers at Polytechnic University have developed a portable ultrasound scanner for scoliosis, a sideways curvature of the spine that occurs most often during pre-teen years. This will enable cheap and mass checks, even in schools, to detect the illness.

Traditionally, patients with an abnormal curvature of spine have been examined using X-rays, which come with health risks associated with the radiation. Ultrascans are also now used, but they are not portable and patients have to go to facilities with these machines to undergo the tests.

"The major feature of this device is its portability," said the university’s biomedical engineering professor Zheng Yong-ping.

"It is much more accessible as we can move the ultrasound to the patients, rather than move the patients to the device," he said, adding that these new generation machines are more compact than the bulkier scanners in use.

As the new device makes use of 3D ultrasound imaging, it can be used as often as needed to monitor treatment progress.

Professor Zheng told RTHK's Phoebe Ng that more than 2,000 children with scoliosis have already been scanned using this device and the results have been very positive.