It is common knowledge that some diseases, such as cancer, can be cured if detected properly and early.

Endoscopic Ultrasound (EUS), a medical breakthrough in the diagnosis of gastro-intestinal diseases and seen as the first step towards virtual biopsy has been introduced in the country.

This machine was developed through the partnership of Hitachi Ultrasound using its latest equipment in tissue elastography, Pentax with its newly developed endoscopes and HIMEX Corp., which brought this newest technology to the country.

With EUS, doctors can easily recognize mass formation as the tissue elastography of Hitachi Ultrasound can detect the tiniest tumor of 2mm during procedure thus providing clear images that can lead to accurate diagnosis.

The machine was unveiled through a workshop conducted at the Metropolitan Medical Center. Dr. Ivan Ong, head of the hospital’s gastroenterology department acquainted fellow doctors with the new technology. workshop on Endoscopic Ultrasound of Hitachi and Pentax.

Dr. Malay Sharma, the guest faculty from India, also lent his expertise during the workshop.

Dr. Jonard Co, consultant gastroenterologist of Metropolitan Hospital said the EUS technology is good for minimally invasive detection of the tiniest tumor and protects the patients from undergoing trauma due to unnecessary ultra-invasive procedures.

EUS is an imaging procedure used for the visualization of tissue elasticity. The principle of elastography is that tissue compression produces displacement within the tissue, while the strain is smaller in hard tissues as compared to soft tissues. Consequently, by measuring the tissue strain induced by compression, it is possible to estimate the tissue hardness, which may be useful in diagnosing and differentiating malignant tumors.

Ultrasound elastography estimates the axial strain of the tissues along the direction of compression, which can be obtained in real-time with recent state-of-the-art ultrasound systems.