microTEE probe

has introduced the microTEE, which is claimed to be the world’s smallest transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) transducer for the cardiac imaging of neonatal patients.

The microTEE transducer provides paediatric cardiologists with a diagnostic tool for imaging the hearts of newborn patients.

Philips's microTEE will be showcased next week at the 20th annual American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) in Washington, DC, and it will be available for sale globally this summer.

TEE is an alternative way to produce echocardiograms of the heart. With a standard echocardiogram, a transducer is placed over the chest wall.

With TEE, the transducer is fed into the esophagus and positioned behind the heart. Once there, the transducer bounces soundwaves off the heart to produce images of the cardiac structures.

Philips claimed that previously available paediatric TEE transducers were so large that it was impossible to image small babies during critical cardiac catheterisation or surgical procedures. As a result, high-risk procedures were done routinely on infant patients without transesophageal echocardiography images available to the surgeon.