Einführung in die EFSUMB Leitlinien zur Interventionellen Sonographie (INVUS)

Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology

Abstract

Introduction

In 1972, the delegates of 13 European ultrasound societies met in Basel, Switzerland for the formal foundation of the European Federation of Societies for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology (EFSUMB). Today the federation comprises 29 national societies with almost 20 000 members. EFSUMB is the largest society within the World Federation for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology (WFUMB). The European federation’s purpose has always been to promote the exchange of scientific knowledge in the field of ultrasound.

EFSUMB guidelines

Over the last decade EFSUMB has produced a series of guidelines and recommendations

General

The introduction of any new diagnostic or treatment tool into clinical practice has always resulted in debate in the medical literature, both by clinicians and health care managers. This generally follows a pattern. The first phase is characterized by enthusiasm and optimism driven by the authors performing and promoting the new technique often reporting convincing outcomes, suggesting significant improvement over previous techniques in the same field. This author optimism is frequently counteracted by the skepticism of clinicians not directly involved in the technique. The second phase, often occurring many years later, is characterized by a more equilibrate evaluation prompting learned scientific societies to produce appropriate clinical guidelines, in which a consensus general agreement on the advantages and limitations of the technique and its diagnostic accuracy has been reached.

CEUS

Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) guidelines were first introduced by EFSUMB in 2004 [2]. The CEUS liver guidelines were updated in 2008 [3] and 2012 [5] [11]. The current version was a successful joint WFUMB/EFSUMB venture simultaneously published in Ultraschall in der Medizin/European Journal of Ultrasound (EJU) [5] and Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology (UMB) [11]. The EFSUMB CEUS non-liver guidelines were also recently published and expand the clinical indications for CEUS to almost 30 applications [4]. These guidelines and recommendations provide general advice on the use of all currently clinically available ultrasound contrast agents (UCA). They are intended to create standard protocols for the use and administration of UCA in clinical applications on an international basis and improve the management of patients worldwide.

Authors: C. F. Dietrich 1, T. Lorentzen 2 , P. S. Sidhu 3, C. Jenssen 4, O. H. Gilja 5, F. Piscaglia 6

1  Department of Internal Medicine 2, Caritas Krankenhaus, Bad Mergentheim, Germany 7  Sino-German Research Center of Ultrasound in Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China

2  Department of Gastroenterology, Surgical Section, Herlev Hospital, University of Copenhagen, Herlev, Denmark

3  Department of Radiology, King’s College Hospital, London, UK

4  Department of Internal Medicine, Krankenhaus Märkisch Oderland, Strausberg/Wriezen, Germany

5  National Centre for Ultrasound in Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway and Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Bergen, Norway

6  Unit of Internal Medicine, Dept of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Bologna Hospital S.Orsola Malpighi, Bologna, Italy

Ultraschall Med 2015; 36(05): 460-463

DOI: 10.1055/s-0035-1553462