Sonotrax Basic Fetal Doppler Baby Heart Monitor:
Back to Basics and Leap Forward to the Future
A Review on Edan Sonotrax Back Fetal Doppler Baby Heart Monitor
Doctors have used Doppler-based ultrasound for decades, not only for pregnant women but for medical and surgical applications. Ultrasound is based on the idea that you can locate things in space by sending out a frequency, which bounces off an object and returns to you at a measurably different frequency.
By calculating the speed of sound in the first place and measuring the returning frequency, you can determine where things are inside the body. In the oceans, navy ships use a similar sound-based technology, called sonar, to locate underwater mountains and ridges as well as to track other ships. A ship sends out a tone, which bounces off other objects and returns as another frequency.
This tone can be “read” by an expert sonar listener, or it can be fed into a computer and return as readout. The ultrasound test performed by your OB-Gyn works in much the same way: the sound “bounces off” your baby, generating an image that’s displayed on a computer screen.
With this on mind, the trusted name in fetal monitoring, Edan Instruments releases an improved version of its Sonotrax Fetal Doppler products series, with the materialization of Sonotrax Basic Fetal Doppler Baby Heart Monitor.
Sonotrax Basic is a high performance model with FHR digital LCD display.
The width of the beam depends on the MHz. All baby heart monitors designed for fetal heartbeat monitoring is equipped with either a 2 or 3MHz probe. With a 2mghz probe the beam is narrow and direct which helps it penetrate deeper and find the fetal heartbeat earlier than 3MHz dopplers. The Sonotrax Basic baby heart monitor is equipped with a 3 MHz probe which means that its wavelength is actually smaller than a 3 MHz probe and counter to other fetal dopplers brands’ claim that Sonotrax Basic is easier to use for this reason.
The higher the frequency, the shorter in duration is the period and the shorter is the wavelength. The lower the frequency, the longer in duration is the period and the longer is the wavelength
Keeping the above information in mind one would think that because the Sonotrax Basic baby heart monitor uses a 3MHz probe one might be able to find the fetal heartbeat earlier than a baby heart monitor equipped with a 3MHz probe. In our tests this wasn't the case. We believe many factors contributed to this including sound projection (speaker), poor or no static reducing technology, probe surface area and design. However, given the price tag we understand how many of these important characteristics were overlooked
Edan Instruments, Inc. is one of the leading medical equipment manufacturers in China. Located in Shenzhen, a major electronic center where talent and productivity converge, Edan is home to more than 500 employees working in R&D, manufacturing and marketing. |
