Oral enhancement agent · Filled-stomach ultrasound · Acquisition quality control

Letting ultrasound see the pancreas.

The pancreas is one of the deepest organs in the abdomen, tucked behind the stomach and the colon. On an empty stomach the stomach is collapsed, and in front of it sit bowel gas and fat — the ultrasound beam does not get there. That is a physics problem, not a skill problem. AIMED’s approach is to turn the stomach into a window: a grain-based enhancement agent the patient drinks, a written acquisition protocol, and software that checks image quality while the examination is still under way.

Developed and manufactured in China. Not currently available in the United States or Canada.

What the agent is See it in practice

Grain-based ingredients — not a drug, no radiation

Class II medical device registration in China

Prospective study at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, published

Granted invention patents and software copyrights

How it works

The problem, the approach, the result.

Starting from the clinical difficulty, not from the technology.

Where the problem is

It can’t be seen. The pancreas lies deep, behind a collapsed stomach, behind gas in the transverse colon and duodenum, and behind abdominal and mesenteric fat. Gas interfaces reflect the beam almost completely; depth and fat attenuate what is left.

It can’t be done consistently. Whether the pancreas comes into view depends on position, breathing, probe pressure and the operator’s persistence. Two equally competent physicians can produce examinations that cannot be compared with each other.

There is little choice. Endoscopy and CT or MRI answer the question, but are invasive, costly, or both. Ultrasound is inexpensive, portable, radiation-free and everywhere — if the window can be opened.

Our approach

Distend and fill the stomach with the agent. A grain-based powder, mixed with water and drunk, turns the collapsed stomach into a distended, thick medium containing uniformly dispersed microbubbles — a stable acoustic window directly in front of the pancreas, pushing bowel gas aside.

Write the acquisition procedure down. Fixed stations, fixed planes, fixed time points — anchored to the moment the patient finishes drinking, not to the clock.

Let software check quality at the bedside. It assesses image quality and shows which clips are still missing — while the patient is still there and they can be recovered.

What it is intended to deliver

The pancreas comes into view. In a prospective study at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, the proportion of pancreatic cystic lesions with a satisfactory acoustic window rose from 30% to 80%.

It becomes repeatable. A standardized procedure with software quality control, no longer dependent on “the most experienced physician in the region.”

The physician decides. The software assists: it marks locations worth a physician’s second look and indicates the type of finding they may represent (this analysis layer is in development). Its output is a marker for the physician, not a conclusion — every clinical judgment is made by a physician.

Try the annotation tool demonstrations →

In practice

The numbers, and where they come from.

Every figure is reported with the population, the method, the sample size and the year.

30% → 80%

of pancreatic cystic lesions with a satisfactory acoustic window, before versus after the enhancement agent (9/30 to 24/30)

Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Quant Imaging Med Surg 2024; 27 patients, P = 0.002

55% → 90%

of healthy volunteers in whom the whole pancreas was adequately visualized — supine, versus after 500 mL of degassed water

Matsumoto et al., Intern Med 2024; n = 20 healthy volunteers

79% vs 7%

complete visualization of the pancreatic tail, with versus without simethicone and 500 mL of degassed water

Abu-Yousef & El-Zein, Radiology 2000; n = 70 vs 70

Before-and-after cine loops and the full literature →

Scope

What we are not claiming.

The quickest way to be trusted by people who read the literature is to draw the boundary yourself.

We are not claiming regulatory status we do not have.
No product described on this site is approved or cleared in the United States or Canada, and none is currently available there. The software is not a registered medical device anywhere.
We are not claiming the software makes diagnoses.
Its established functions assess image quality and acquisition completeness; an analysis layer in development marks locations worth a physician’s review and indicates the type of finding they may represent. Its output is a marker for physician review — not a diagnosis, and not used in clinical reporting. Every clinical interpretation is made by a physician.
Nothing on this site is a screening claim.
No guideline body recommends transabdominal ultrasound for pancreatic cancer screening, and nothing here should be read as suggesting otherwise.
We are not claiming we invented oral ultrasound contrast.
The idea was tried in the 1970s, and the United States once approved a product — but it never took root in the West: the product was withdrawn from the market, and radiology moved to CT and MRI. It did take root in China, where it grew into an established practice with registered products, expert consensus and a national standard in drafting. That is the system we come from. Our claim is the specific application to the pancreas, and the acquisition and quality-control work built around it.
We are not claiming our agent outperforms any other.
No head-to-head comparison has been published — not against another oral agent, and not against water. Until one is, we describe what our agent is, not how it ranks.

Interested, or thinking about working together?

Research collaboration, distribution partnerships, or simply a conversation about the technology — all are welcome. We do not currently operate in North America, but we are open to the conversation.