A deep dive into BPL-Alpinion’s Intra-oral transducer

IO3-12, the latest innovation in the field of Ultrasonography is BPL-Alpinion’s sophisticated intra-oral transducer. Designed with a footprint as small as the size of a toothbrush, the transducer performs trans-oral sonography with ease. With its small footprint and easy grip, clinicians can easily manoeuvre and view intra- oral structures such as salivary duct dilatations and can also check the position of stone real time during Sialo lithotomy.

A classic example of this case is the submandibular gland, the most common site of calculi formation. About 85% of submandibular gland calculi are located in Wharton’s duct.

Wharton’s duct and Wharton’s dilatation

While Sonography is the preferred mode of diagnosis for salivary gland calculi, tiny calculi near salivary duct opening are hard to visualize on conventional ultrasound examination. Trans-oral sonography, however, can visualize the submandibular duct and detect the presence of small calculi, thus overcoming the limitations of transcutaneous sonography.

IO3-12 comes with E-CUBE 7, E-CUBE 9 and E-CUBE 15 and here are the images taken using a conventional linear probe and an intra-oral probe.

Conventional linear probe vs Intra-oral probe

Conventionally, the modalities used to diagnose salivary gland calculi like ultrasound, plain radiographs, sialography, CT, MR sialography, and sialoendoscopy can reveal only 20% of the calculi. Intraoral transducer, on the other hand is small and handy compared to the conventional linear transducer with a similar frequency range of about 3-12 MHz and hence it is easier to perform TOUS (Trans Oral Ultrasonography) quickly at an outpatient clinic. TOUS makes it possible to visualize oral cavity organs, such as sublingual gland, submandibular duct, tongue, lips, tonsils and soft palate, which are virtually impossible to image with conventional ultrasound. To gain a deeper understanding of the intra-oral probe application, download the research paper – Transoral Sonographic Diagnosis of Submandibular Duct Calculi_BPLAlpinion