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Ultrasound scanning could be used to diagnose stroke victims faster, and may even one day be used to check the head injuries of sport stars while they are still on the field.

Ultrasound produces pictures of a body鈥檚 insides by transmitting and recording the echoes of sound waves. It is most commonly used to measure the size of fetuses during pregnancy. Llu铆s Guasch at Imperial College London and his colleagues have now developed a version that produces three-dimensional ultrasound images of the human brain

Guasch hopes it can one day be used to aid stroke patients and those who have experienced head trauma.

People who have a stroke must be diagnosed quickly because countermeasures need to be taken fast to avoid further damage, but the treatment differs depending on the nature of their stroke. Typically, diagnosis is only possible with brain imaging, using either MRI or CT scans. Both of these scans can only be conducted in hospitals, which means there is usually a delay before people who have had a stroke can be diagnosed. 鈥淓very 4 minutes you delay a stroke diagnosis can result in months of added recovery time,鈥� says Guasch.

Until now, ultrasound scanning wasn鈥檛 used to image the brain because the resulting picture was distorted by the bones of the skull. But the new technique overcomes this issue by pairing the recordings with an algorithm that takes account of any interference produced by the skull. 鈥淲e鈥檝e never had this amount of computing power before,鈥� says Guasch.

Unlike MRI or CT scans, this method could be easily employed outside the hospital setting because it only requires sound waves, and the equipment is smaller than a CT or MRI scanner and relatively inexpensive. This could allow paramedics to make a stroke diagnosis as soon as they encounter the patient.

The technology is still in the early stages of development. It takes a few hours for the algorithm to produce images free from the interference of the skull, but the researchers are confident they will be able to produce images within minutes. The team is working on a prototype helmet which utilises the technology, which Guasch hopes will be in clinical trials in less than two years.

He also speculates that such a helmet could one day be used by sports officials. 鈥淲e could use it to rule out any serious injuries before sending players back onto the pitch,鈥� he says.

Nicholas Evans at the University of Cambridge says that while this technology is promising, there are still a lot of challenges before it can be used in a clinical setting. 鈥淭he technique should be reliable, the imaging must be interpretable in a timely manner and the use of the scanning equipment must be user friendly for first responders in the field,鈥� he says.