Since 1991 the International Breast Ultrasound School (IBUS) has indefatigably promoted progress and quality assurance in breast ultrasound -- a good reason for IBUS to celebrate its 20th anniversary during WFUMB.
In recent years the ultrasound division of Siemens Healthcare appeared to be a Sleeping Beauty slumbering on in the shadow of large slice imaging equipment such as PET/CT and MR/PET, the medical technology giant’s favourite daughters. With many of the world’s wealthy princes, particularly from India, Brazil, China, and so on, knocking on Siemens’ doors, the giant has at last decided to wake…
Sahlgrenska University Hospital provides emergency and basic care for the 700,000 inhabitants of the Gothenburg region. It also provides highly specialised care for the 1.7 million inhabitants in Sweden’s west because, in this country, endoscopic ultrasound examinations are only provided in university hospitals. Thus Sahlgrenska’s physicians receive referrals of difficult diagnostic cases…
In recent years, the technique of breast ultra-sonography has become an essential procedure in the diagnostic evaluation of breast tissue. The improvement of ultrasound technology, especially with regards to the high resolution of modern devices and the use of colour Doppler sonography, has made this technique indispensable in our daily routine. Although the value of conventional breast…
Although space limitations have reduced the number of live scanning sessions at past World Ultrasound Congresses, this year greater space at the Vienna venue has enabled the organisation of 51 live scanning sessions by Dr Christian Aiginger, consultant internist at the St. Josef Hospital Vienna Auhof, with Dr Helmut Prosch, Consultant at the Department of General Radiology and Paediatric…
High flexibility and live conditions contribute towards the high popularity of image-guided interventions, now performed under ultrasound control in 80-90% of cases. However, although minimally-invasive examinations are based on high standards of medical safety, complications can arise that could ultimately lead to litigation. Thus, experienced ultrasound operators would be wise to know the…
Prenatal ultrasound images are the first images we see of new humans. But the prenatal ultrasound first carried out by Professor Ian Donald in the late 50s has little to do with today’s potential with 3-D and 4-D imaging with Doppler and colour Doppler. The three tightly linked disciplines gynaecology, prenatal medicine and obstetrics would now be inconceivable without ultrasound
Rapid and accurate acquisition of basic diagnostic information through the innovative concept of point of care ultrasound can have significant benefits for patient outcome, costs, reducing mortality and medical-legal risk scenarios. These benefits of point-of-care (POC) ultrasound will be highlighted during a WFUMB session by Italian critical care physician Professor Luca Neri, founder and past…
An opening lecture at WFUMB 2011 will surely excite the audience with its focus on using ultrasound examinations of larger, non-human patients. Delivered by Dr Thomas B Hildebrandt, head of the reproduction management research group at the Leibnis Institute for zoo & wildlife research in Berlin/Germany, delegates will hear of the ways in which veterinary needs push ultrasound to achieve…
Catastrophes draw people closer, as demonstrated by the development of the new high-end ultrasound scanner Aplio 500 from Toshiba. The clinical evaluation period took place during the tsunami and the nuclear catastrophe in Fukusima. Professor Thomas Fischer at the Radiological Institute, Charité Clinic in Berlin, was impressed by the enormous commitment shown by the Japanese firm’s engineers…
Although many new features in US-guided interventions are being marketed, which are really necessary, which just nice-to-have? It’s a question to be faced by experts during the refresher course ‘Interventional ultrasound’ at WFUMB 2011. One of the most established ultrasound techniques in minimally invasive procedures is contrast enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) – a tool that is safe, gentle…
Uncontrollable convulsions, tremor or spasms can considerably impair the lives of neurodegenerative disease patients. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) – for which tiny electrodes are implanted in the brain to stimulate the target areas continuously with electrical impulses – can significantly reduce the movement disorder.
Detecting prostate cancer with transrectal ultrasound using strain elastography is quite tricky: it works by applying pressure to the transducer to measure relative stiffness of tissue, Professor Correas points out and states that ‘more than 80 percent of prostate cancer develops in the peripheral zone which is against the rectal wall. If we apply pressure to this zone the deformation of the…
Contrast agents have opened up entirely new possibilities are taking shape for ultrasound, above all in oncology. Following the publication of guidelines on the clinical use of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) by the European Federation of Societies for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology (EFSUMB) in 2004 and 2008, at this year’s World Ultrasound Congress, WFUMB and EFSUMB will present joint…
More than 90% of patients who present with suspect or highly suspect breast lesions (BI-RADS categories 4 or 5) now undergo biopsies. Further treatment is only carried out after the precise histological clarification of the tissue sample is obtained. The intervention is routinely carried out via ultrasound guided punch biopsy. Thanks to new techniques the procedure is now becoming even more…
Lung ultrasound is a technique with widespread uses and advantages in a range of areas from critical care through to less urgent medical areas. Most of all, it is of particular help in the rapid diagnosis of acute respiratory failure. During a session at WFUMB, its benefits and the latest techniques will be outlined by medical intensivist Dr Daniel Lichtenstein -- Lung Ultrasound in Acute…
Dr Helmut Prosch, at the University Clinic for Radio-Diagnostics, Vienna, Austria, is examining the role of imaging in lung cancer diagnosis and staging. The key message of his presentation in the session EUS and EBUS vs. CT, MR and PET-CT in the staging of lung cancer is that the modalities do not compete with one another – as the title suggests – but are perfectly complimentary in the…
Around 700 international experts met in Vienna to discuss the latest advancements in ultrasound, such as a new technique called real time imaging, and of approximately 200 scientific papers. That was back in 1969 when for the first time physicians and scientists from around the world came together in Austria’s capital to share their knowledge of the use of ultrasound waves in medicine. The…
Hitachi Medical Corporation and Aloka Corporation have combined their strengths in ultrasound to form Hitachi Aloka Medical Ltd. (Japan), a subsidiary of Hitachi Medical Corporation (Japan). The new company will be making their European debut in Vienna from 26 to 29 August 2011 at the 13th World Congress of Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology (WFUMB). With its keynote theme, ‘the next generation…
Dr Bill Svensson believes that elastography has the potential to improve diagnosis of breast cancer, reduce the number of false positives in the detection of the condition and also lead to fewer biopsies performed as accuracy of imaging improves further. This June he highlighted the potential of elastography and the developments in the imaging modality at two sessions at the United Kingdom…
Hitachi Medical Corporation is delighted to announce that its HI VISION Avius ultrasound platform has been selected as a recipient of the iF product design award 2011 and is proud to now carry the iF design quality label.
Medical imaging has recently advanced so rapidly that it should halt. Applying more power to computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners is becoming too dangerous for patients and healthcare workers. Magnets for the next-generation MRIs are so powerful that they must be moved to a separate building on hospital campuses, while CT radiation levels have risen to alarming…
As one of the first in Europe, the FUS Centre at the Klinikum Dachau in Germany introduced MRgFUS in 2008 as a gentle alternative for the treatment of fibroids. The success that has since been achieved in this encouraged Dr Matthias Matzko, head of radiology and of the FUS Centre, to take on a leading role with the introduction to the market of the second product generation, the ExAblate One.…
Prostate cancer is the 2nd leading cause of cancer death in men. It is also the most common diagnosed malignancy in men with near 190.000 new cases in the USA in 2008. Despite the larger use of biological tests (such as prostate specific antigen (PSA)) and imaging modalities (trans-rectal ultrasonography (TRUS) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)), there is a slight increase in the annual death…
Supporter und platform for systems in the area of diagnostic imaging: The innovative Austrian company Mides again represented itself at the ECR – the European Congress of Radiology –in Vienna. As Europe-wide specialist in the field of ultrasound probe repair, Mides this year for the first time appears as retailer of high-quality CT and MRI devices.
