ArticleAnnals of Saudi medicine
Abdominal aorta measurements by a handheld ultrasound device compared with a conventional cart-based ultrasound machine.
Article in Annals of Saudi medicine. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 8 citations in OpenAlex.
- Systematic Review of Commercially Available Clinical CMUT-Based Systems for Use in Medical Ultrasound Imaging: Products, Applications, and Performance.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Pooled it
- A Robotic Ultrasound System for Automated Abdominal Aorta Screening: Feasibility Study in Healthy Volunteers.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Carotid Intima-Media Thickness in Young Healthy Adults in Saudi Arabia: A Pilot Study of Preliminary CIMT Measurements and Cardiovascular Risk Assessment Using a Handheld Ultrasound Device.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Advances and Challenges of Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers in Medical Imaging.Micromachines · 2026Review
- Accuracy and Reproducibility of Handheld 3D Ultrasound Versus Conventional 2D Ultrasound for Urinary Bladder Volume Measurement: A Prospective Comparative Study.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Usefulness of handheld ultrasound devices in the assessment of abdominal pathology and comparison with high-end ultrasound devices.The ultrasound journal · 2025Article
- Handheld Ultrasound Devices Used by Newly Certified Operators for Pneumonia in the Emergency Department-A Diagnostic Accuracy Study.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Reliability of Ultrasound Measurements of the Median Nerve in Asymptomatic Subjects Using a Handheld Device.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- The Performance Characteristics of Handheld, Non-Piezoelectric Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) in the Emergency Department.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Reproducibility and feasibility of a handheld ultrasound device compared to a standard ultrasound machine in muscle thickness measurements.Australasian journal of ultrasound in medicine · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundUltraportable or pocket handheld ultrasound devices (HUD) may be useful for large-scale abdominal aortic aneurysm screening. However, the reproducibility of measurements has not been compared with conventional cart-based ultrasound machines.
objectivesInvestigate the intra- and inter-operator reproducibility of a HUD compared with a conventional ultrasound machine for aortic screening.
designAnalytical, cross-sectional.
settingUltrasound department at a large tertiary care hospital in Riyadh. PATIENTS AND
methodsEligible male participants aged ≥60 years were invited to participate upon arriving for a non-vascular ultrasound appointment. Three repeated anteroposterior measurements of the transverse aorta were made at the proximal and distal locations for each machine before repeating the measurements on a subset of participants by a second blinded operator. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) and the Bland-Altman method were used to analyze reproducibility.
main outcome measureInter-system and intra- and inter-operator ICCs. SAMPLE SIZE: 114 males with repeated measurements by second operator on a subset of 35 participants.
resultsThe median age (interquartile range) of participants was 68 years (62-74 years). The intra- and inter-operator ICCs were all >0.800 showing almost perfect agreement except for the inter-operator reproducibility at the proximal location using a conventional machine (ICC= 0.583,
conclusionsAbdominal aortic screening using a HUD was feasible and reliable compared with a conventional ultrasound machine. A pocket HUD should be considered for large-scale screening. LIMITATIONS: No cases of abdominal aortic aneurysm in the sample and lack of blinding. CONFLICT OF INTEREST: None.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.