Dear Ultrasound Insider,
The guidelines for contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) of the liver have received their first update since 2012. The updated guidelines provide recommendations for CEUS imaging, education, and documentation for hepatic applications.
A global team of 38 authors from 16 countries drafted the guidelines, which included 38 total recommendations on 13 topics. The guidance was based on evidence-based research and published in the October print issue of Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology. Read more in our Insider Exclusive.
In other news, the Ultrasound Community has also been filled with stories highlighting ultrasound-based innovations.
In a virtual poster at the 2020 European Society of Cardiology conference, researchers from Japan described a blood pressure monitor that utilizes a tiny ultrasound probe instead of compression to monitor systolic and diastolic changes. The probe utilized in their design is only about half the size of a box of matches.
But even that device seems massive compared with a detector developed by a team in Germany. The German device is smaller than a blood cell and 10,000 times smaller than the piezoelectric crystal transducers currently used for clinical sonography. It utilizes a silicon computer chip that can confine light in dimensions that can't be seen by the human eye.
Finally, an Ultrasound Insider newsletter in 2020 wouldn't be complete without some stories on the COVID-19 pandemic. One new study found that a pocket-sized ultrasound scanner powered by a smartphone performed comparably to a cart-based scanner for lung imaging at the point of care in patients with COVID-19. The findings are good news in a pandemic rife with medical equipment shortages, the authors noted.
In addition, a survey from IMV Medical Information Division found that the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a 50% decline in exam volume at hospitals using general ultrasound equipment. That's an astounding drop, but the good news is that hospitals are seeing volume rebound as they plan a return to normal operations.
Did your ultrasound volume take a hit because of the pandemic? What procedures and precautions have you taken to help operations return to seminormal? Let me know on Twitter or by email.
Disclosure notice: IMV Medical Information Division is a sister company of AuntMinnie.com.
