The American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM) held its annual convention in New York last week, combining education sessions, poster presentations, research updates, awards, vendor exhibits and other clinical and practice related programs.

A unique modality that is applied to many clinical purposes, ultrasound practitioners include sonographers, sonologists, radiologists, specialists in cardiology, vascular medicine, internal medicine, breast imaging, orthopedics, thoracic, renal, neurosonology, neonatal and pediatrics, and of course OB/GYN.

One major highlight of the meeting was the William J. Fry Memorial Lecture, given by radiologist Alfred Kurtz, MD. Dr. Kurtz recapped the extraordinary journey that medical ultrasound has taken from the early history of outsized transducers to today's multi-planar 3-D and 4-D real-time motion picture technology. "Images have become spectacular with remarkable detail," he said.
Contrast-enhanced ultrasound was a much-talked about topic at the event since it holds great promise. "At the moment, we do have a problem in the U.S. The FDA has approved only two agents for cardiac microbubbles," Dr. Kurtz said. He noted that clinical opinion leaders are talking to the FDA through a multi-specialty task force with vendors to urge further approvals. "The world has access to ultrasound contrast agents; we [in the U.S.] have only limited access," he said, noting its applicability to examining the spleen, liver, and vascular anatomy. Meanwhile, elastography has recently been developed and is being refined to enhance characterization of tumor tissue, also a method applicable to examining liver disease such as chronic hepatitis.

Dr. Kurtz also updated attendees on the status of practice guideline adoption with 20 now in place covering physician qualifications, exam procedures, equipment safety and other important topics to standardize care. He noted that a voluntary quality accreditation is also available.

Quality practice standards remain a problem in ultrasound as in many areas of medicine. About 120,000 ultrasound exams are done each year with as many as 40 percent by uncertified or uncredentialed practitioners. AIUM is taking the lead and collaborating with many specialties to develop new practice guidelines and physician training.

He noted that ultrasound competes with CT, MR and PET for patients and for reimbursements. Dr. Kurtz called for more uniformity in diagnosis and faster scan times for exams. Many diagnoses remain challenging such as benign liver disease, gall bladder disease, kidney and thyroid disorders and ovarian follicles and cysts.

More Industry Headlines