<i>Aloe vera</i> Lotion Used as a Potential Alternative Couplant for Sonography, in a Low-Resource Health Care Facility

Objective: This study assessed the use of Aloe vera lotion as an alternative coupling medium for ultrasound imaging. Materials and Methods: A prospective analytical research design was adopted. A total of 50 subjects who consented were randomly recruited into the study from the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH), Calabar and the Gijuwie Medical Diagnostics, Calabar. A total of 50 image pairs were obtained on scanning with Aloe vera lotion (Image A) and commercial ultrasound gel (Image B) for comparison. Image quality was assessed using anatomical details (AD) and visualization of hyperechoic structures (VHS) as criteria. Results: A substantial agreement was seen among raters (A: k = 0.658, B = 0.691; P < .05) with acceptable level of consistency (Cronbach’s alpha scores of 0.701 and 0.825 for Aloe vera lotion and commercial gel, respectively) based on AD. Images recommended as acceptable by raters was 91.7% for Aloe vera lotion and 81.7% for commercial gel. Both methods demonstrated almost perfect agreement (kappa > 80; P < .05) with each other based on AD and VHS (Table 3). Conclusion: Aloe vera lotion, which is locally available and relatively affordable, has the potential to be used as acoustic coupling medium in diagnostic sonography.