Prelude
Scientia
Chiropractic
(Seeing
is Believing Ultrasound Spine Scan Diary)
Volume 2
(03/20/07 –03/22/07)
A journal documenting
advanced ultrasound scan observations from 2cm through 15 cm
deep in the spinal and paraspinal tissues in
The Rochester
Spine Care
&
Alternative
Healing Clinic
493 37th.
Street N.E.
Rochester,
Mn. 55906
Dr.
John D. Reid,
D.C.
507-281-4040
The
new three dimensional ultrasound system is now operating daily in Rm. #2
and it is a nice complement to the two dimensional unit in the other treatment
room. I’ve discovered some
weaknesses in the operating software for the new unit, but have managed to
compensate. One glaring example
is the ability to create directories on the hard drive, but then a lack
of ability to store anything into the directories.
Every image is simply placed
“upfront” on the hard drive main
index. I attached an external
hard drive (170 Gigabytes) but the same thing held true for the
external. Since hard drives
only allow 256 items on the main index this could prove
troublesome. My solution is
to store anything I need stored on the external drive, and then every so
often take the external drive off the US system and hook up to my wife’s
XP tower in the business office.
Using normal Windows XP, I
can then shuffle the Jpeg’s and Bmp’s into secured directories
and thus free up more external hard drive “upfront” index
space. The internal hard drive is presently being reserved for
internal functions and temporary storage. (Anything on the main internal
hard drive can be brought up on screen and then re-saved onto the external
drive. Then whatever is no longer
needed on the internal hard drive can be erased to keep the internal drive
upfront index freed up.)
The instruction book operating manual needs some editing, and I have offered to re-edit for a simple fee involving a free curvilinear transducer or the first 100mm linear transducer for spine scan survey work.. YOU KNOW, I wonder if another 7.5 Meg linear would not allow probe A then save image, then Probe B then save image, then bring up image 1 and image 2 on split screen and assemble.... We could sure use a 90 to 100 mm survey probe to expedite initial sweeps and survey examinations. maybe an A/B switching with no erase would allow two linears to be simply mechanically joined or something and show their images on the split screens! It would be neat.
There
must be a trick to reaching the Windows operating system, but so far access
to the windows system per se has eluded
me. Probably it is super protected
in order to avoid accidental erasure of the three dimensional software and
the Ultrasound Operating Package.
If I could reach the usual and customary windows XP system I could
probably stuff files into a directory or two on the main system internal
hard drive. I don’t
know since the few times I’ve glimpsed the main Windows system files
they seemed very abbreviated.
The
3 D routine took a bit of coaxing: To operate the 3D mode it is absolutely
necessary to install an external mouse or track-ball to a usb port on the
back-side of the machine, since the main keyboard disengages when the 3 D
routine is brought up by an operator.
The 3D image presents as a brick but with fanny toward the operator,
so it looks like two dimensional same/same.
The (already installed by
the operator) external USB connected track ball must be then employed to
click on a side of the seemingly two dimensional image, and with left mouse
button (trackball button) held down the image can be rotated, then button
released, and in about 4 seconds the image is fully processed in the new
angle aspect and clarifies nicely.
Without the externally connected track-ball installed the 3D routine
stalls out with no way to turn the image.
The
system demands any flash drive be 2 Gig or
better. I tried a 1 Gigabyte
unit and a rejection message came up.
I installed a 170 Gig external hard drive and the system was “happy
as pie.”
Which
brings me to the USB Ports on the rear of the
machine. I had to install
a one port to four port adapter since with trackball, and lexar ink jet
printer, and the external hard drive the original 2 ports just were not
enough. I like the ink jet printer
when I do research with the histogram function since the images come out
7 inches by 7 inches and the histogram is very
readable.
Which brings me to the function keys: They are a dream and I’ve set them to F1=cerv, F2= thorax, F3= lumbar exam, F4= accelerated healing, F5= histogram. The set-ups were very intuitive and easy, and also can be easily changed.
The
gray scale gamma curves were also easy to set up as user1,user2,user3,
etc. For spine in 5 meg I like certain % of gray black compression,
and for 6.2 Meg I like another % compression involving black and white
ranges.
I’ve
redesigned my ultrasound dolly/table to allow for the extra track-ball, and
I also made room for the video printer, the computer ink jet, a video control
box to make the out going images for the patient screen show the images precisely
correctly, and a new external video processing key
board. The new addendum keyboard
will allow me to print constant floating “titles” even when the
main keyboard disengages during 3D displays.
The new keyboard will be
spliced into the matrix just after the machine video out-put and before the
printer or patient screen. This
will save paper and make a stronger lego-medical
record. Right now I am printing
a preliminary page in 2 D with text predicting the 3D, then printing the
3D (no labels possible on the actual image) and then our records keeping
protocols forbid physically separating the two
images. If the 3D does not quite
fulfill the prediction of the first 2D page, then an “after page”
is set up and printed so as o correct the false impression from the
1st prediction page. It
is awkward and time consuming and I think a weak lego-medical
record. With the new external
“after” keyboard installed the process should be streamlined nicely
via printing right onto the 3D image, PLUS if I am imaging a vertebra in
different angles the name will persist
whether I am in frozen image
or dynamic image modes. It would be nice if the original system made persistence
or erasure of the text when unfreeze is hit
optional. I would choose “persistence” with erasure only
if I hit the “clear text”
key.
I
finally employed the M mode just for fun, and lo and behold when I went back
to B mode the machine allowed
3cm,
4cm, 5cm, and 7 cm. as well as 9 cm
depths. I must have triggered
a soft ware routine since before playing with M mode I could not go more
shallow than 6 cm depth in B mode!
I guess new machine systems should be exercised in all functions and
modes a bit to trigger all capabilities.
The
mysteries of accelerated healing are being slowly unwrapped more precisely
than ever before seen on my older 2D ultrasound
system. Different Accel modalities
seem to be best imaged in slightly different
frequencies. I strongly suspect
a number of separate but cooperative lymph based healing
systems. I may be observing
the dilations and activations
of different aspects of the acupuncture meridian energies
system. When the correct reactions
are seen on US Scan, then healing is fantastically speeded with higher than
usual quality of tissue repairs (adult stem cell migrations rather than scar
tissues). Of my 12 or so modalities
for Accel there seems to be induced approximately 3 different systemic reactions
for accelerated healing. These
require three different frequencies respectively in order to best
view. The most pleasant seems
to be my newest with lymph primary with healing per se secondary, thus even
though healing is boosted 10X to 50X there is little excessive aching since
the lymph drainage keeps pressures low.
My original Accel modalities seem to cause healing primary, lymph
secondary, and sometimes aching is severe as healing is speeded but the lymph
do not carry off pressures fast enough.
Bone healing can be extremely painful with the original Accel modalities,
though for example ribs heal
25% to 30% in 90 minutes. I
have not had a chance yet to try the new style Accel units on hard tissues
such as ribs.
Viewing
a spine before and after
chiropractic adjustment is worth a dozen positive thinking
seminars! Such dramatic changes
in muscle tone, lymphatic dilations, ligament stresses, and nerve root
inflammation signs are seen within minutes that it is
astounding. If doctors of
chiropractic only fully realized what they do each day, there would be a
different socio political scenario as they took a back seat to no
one.
03/21/07
Progress continues with the
arrival of the after data video keyboard.
Since the
3D mode disengaged the keyboard I could not previously label the 3D images
without a strenuous protocol of
attachments. With the new keyboard
I can float any title I wish onto the final video output and thus label the
3D very easily with date, patient. Views,
etc.
It is a
dream come true.
I did one
goof-up though. I installed
the keyboard properly, but then realized I could only see what I was typing
on the patient screen or on a print-out.
Since the video floating titles happen AFTER the main system, they
do not appear on the main screen!
Whoops. Installation
of a video to RF converter box and then that lead-out to a little TV tuned
to channel #3 solved the problem nicely without drawing down the video signal
too much. A simple go round
go round go round session bringing the main screen the patient screen, and
the printer all into harmony finally gave me exactly what I
needed. The little TV merely
needs to show me where I’m printing so as not to obscure important features
of the raw picture, so whether it is in harmony precisely or not is not too
important. The medical main
screen has 256 shades of gray, the patient screen has 64 shades of gray,
and T.V.’s have possibly less than 64 so there are limits to the possible
over-all harmony. I just basically
need to know that if I point out a feature to a patient, that the feature
is visible to the patient. The
basic trick of course is to use gold plated contacts set firmly on all grounded
cables so all the screens etc. do not cause interference with each
other.
The final
design is quite sophisticated and has fine research
potential. It is Main vid signal
to enhancement box, then to video keyboard, with split off triconnect to
RF converter and Little T.V. and to printer and patient video screen. The
little T.V. is set where it is easy for me to see
it. Since the main unit is fixed
pretty much relative to video out-put, the enhancement box allows adjustments
of contrast, sharpness, and brightness so the printer and patient screen
can agree with my main medical screen. The printer has separate contrast brightness adjustments,
and the patient screen has separate contrast brightness adjustments too,
so final harmony takes a bit of initial fussing with
controls. The units are all highest quality though so once locked
in they come up day to day very reliably still locked into
harmony. A bit of red nail polish
dotted here and there helps to memorialize the settings once everything settles
down over a few days useage.
Sincerely,
John D. Reid,
D.C.