Neonatal POCUS Curriculum

GE Venu Go POCUS machine knobology

Quick Guide: GE Venue Go POCUS Machine in the NICU

This guide provides a basic overview of how to use the GE Venue Go machine for point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) in the neonatal unit, drawing on the provided YouTube transcript.

1. Machine Basics & Probes

• The GE Venue Go is a card on four wheels that is easy to move around the unit. You can lock/unblock the wheels for motion.

• The probes are typically stored on top of the machine and should be handled with gentle care.

• This system has five probes. The source describes four:

  • 12S Probe (Sector Array): Around 10-14 MHz. Higher frequency for more superficial structures with better resolution. Good for cardiac applications (heart evaluations) because it handles motion well.

  • 6S Probe (Sector Array): 6 MHz. Lower frequency, allows ultrasound waves to go deeper into tissue. Good for bigger babies (>3kg, like infants of diabetic mothers) to get better cardiac views.

  • 8C Probe (Curvy Linear): Around 8 MHz. Curvy linear shape. Good for abdominal applications (bladder, free fluid, liver, kidneys, spleen). Also a good probe for neonatal head scans via the fontanelle access (massive bleeds, intraventricular hemorrhages, hydrocephalus/ventriculomegaly).

  • L10-22 Probe (Linear): L for linear, 10-22 MHz. Very high frequency for very superficial imaging. Good for vascular access (e.g., obtaining views for needle insertion in veins/arteries, assessing umbilical line tips). Has a marker on the probe that corresponds to a marker on the screen.

  • Hockey Stick Probe (Linear): A type of linear probe. The marker represents the actual tip of the probe, corresponding to a marker on the screen. Useful for vascular access for needle procedures.

2. Connecting & Selecting Probes

• The machine has three ports on the back for connecting probes.

• To connect, gently press the probe into the port and then lock it in. The connected probe will appear on the screen for selection.

• The screen is all touchscreen.

• The top of the screen shows the currently used probe and preset (in order of connection).

• To select a connected probe, go into the area on the screen that shows the probes. Choose the probe graphically, and then select the desired application preset (e.g., Neo Head, Abdomen, Artery). Selecting a preset organises the machine settings appropriately.

3. Starting an Exam

• The power button is on the machine. You can click it to turn the machine on or take it off standby.

• Before scanning a patient, use appropriate wipes to clean the machine and probes.

• To start an exam, select "Patient".

• You can enter a test MRN (e.g., 000000) or use "Auto ID" which assigns the date and time and keeps everything else anonymous.

• You can enter the patient's last and first name.

• Click "Begin Exam" when ready to scan. You can resume an exam later by going back to the "Patient" button.

4. Basic Scanning & Image Acquisition

• Use gel on the patient's skin.

• B-mode (B modes = by dimensional mode) is the 2D mode of imaging.

• To see blood flow, you can use Color Box. Move and reshape the colour box over the area of interest. The scale shows the velocity. Red colour typically means blood flow is coming towards the probe, blue means it is going away.

• You can get a simultaneous view showing both 2D (B-mode) and Colour imaging.

• Depth can be adjusted to focus on structures at different depths. You can use the depth control on the side or slide a control on the screen. Sliding down increases depth (deeper), sliding up makes it shallower.

• Gain adjusts the enhancement of the ultrasound signal. Increasing gain makes the image brighter. This can be adjusted on the touchscreen.

• Width adjusts how much area you are focusing on. Narrowing the width can improve image quality for a specific structure, but a wider view might be needed for quick overall evaluations.

• You can flip the image (e.g., up-down) using a button on the side, especially sometimes for cardiac views.

• The Reverse (R) button on the side can be used to reverse the sidedness of the image on the screen, changing which side corresponds to the probe marker.

• The probe has a marker that corresponds to a marker on the screen. This helps orient you regarding the sidedness of the imaging. For the curvy linear probe, the marker side on the probe appears where you see the GE Venue marker on the screen. What is deeper appears at the end of the frequency window. A triangle on the curvy linear probe shows the exact middle.

5. Freezing & Storing Images/Loops

• To pause the live image, click "Freeze".

• When frozen, you can use a cursor to go back frame by frame or play the loop that was just captured. The loop duration is shown.

• You can select a specific section of a loop to store.

• To store an image or a selected loop segment, click "Store". You can store a frozen still frame directly by freezing and storing without playing the loop.

• When playing a loop, you can slow down or speed up the playback.

6. Measurements

• When an image is frozen, you can perform measurements.

• Click the "Measurements" button (or caliper icon).

• Use calipers by clicking on the screen to define points for distance measurements. The measurement appears on the screen.

• Specific tags or measurement types may be available depending on the preset (e.g., "Neonatal Head" has "Area" and "Caliper").

• An Area measurement allows you to trace an area.

• A Volume measurement can be estimated using distances from different image planes, though this is rarely used in POCUS.

• For vascular access, there's a "Catheter Ratio" measurement under "Vascular Access". You can select a gauge and measure the vessel diameter, and it will estimate the percentage of the lumen the catheter would fill.

• Under "Generic", you can use calipers for general measurements like skin-to-vessel distance.

• Measurements can also be done on images that have already been acquired and are being reviewed.

7. Reviewing Images

• Click "Review" to look at stored images.

• You can scroll through stored images on the screen.

• Double-click on an image to view it fullscreen. Other stored images will appear smaller on the side.

• You can perform further measurements on reviewed images or delete images you don't want to keep.

8. Ending the Exam & Saving

• When finished, click "End Exam".

• Confirm that you want to save your exam by clicking "Yes".

• Exams are saved under "Local Archive". You may be prompted for a password (the source states their machine has no password).

• In the local archive, you can find your studies (e.g., by the patient ID/name) and open them.

9. Cleaning

• After use, clean all probes.

• To clean the machine screen without activating touchscreen functions, press the power button and select "Clean". This blocks the screen. To unlock, slide right.

• You can put the machine on standby or shut it down.

This covers the core operations described in the video for using the GE Venue Go POCUS machine in the NICU. There are many other advanced options and measurements not covered in this basic overview.

Knobology Presentations