Report Euroson School - Contrast Enhanced Ultrasound

Bucharest 15 May 2009

Contrast Enhanced Ultrasonography, especially using second generation contrast agents (SonoVue), became more and more popular in daily practice, because it is quite easy to perform, it is less expensive as compared to CT or MRI (both using contrast), and also because it is a rapid method that can be used in the ultrasound room, following the standard ultrasound evaluation that found the lesion.

In these conditions, the demand of CEUS is increasing in Romania, a country where the ultrasound evaluation is used in daily practice by clinicians (gastroenterologists, nephrologists, internal medicine doctors, emergency specialists and others) and radiologists. For this reason, the Romanian Society of Ultrasound (SRUMB) decided to organize this year an Euroson School on this topic. After the first CEUS Course in Hannover, in the autumn of 2008, Bucharest became the city of the second Postgraduate Course regarding the clinical use of contrast agents in Ultrasonography.

It was a one day course, covering multiple aspects of this type of examination, starting with the principles of CEUS, continuing with the EFSUMB guidelines for the use of contrast agents, and finishing with the utility of CEUS in specific fields (liver and portal thrombosis, kidney, spleen, pancreas, adrenal glands, trauma and vascular medicine). The largest part of the course was dedicated to the evaluation of liver lesions, starting with the benign pathology and finishing with the malignant tumours. The usefulness of ultrasound contrast in portal thrombosis was also discussed. At the end of the meeting there was a session of clinical cases, with interactive discussions, concerning the interpretation of the different imagines. A short questionnaire was distributed to the participants at the end of the final session, to assess the level of information acquired during the whole day.

A number of 122 attendees participated to this course, mostly physicians with a good practice in the field of ultrasound, but also beginners in this field (fellows that wanted to find information regarding the place of CEUS in the daily practice). The interest of the participants for the topic of the conference was proved by the interactive discussions with the faculty during the sessions and during the break periods.

The faculty was a very skilled one, 6 foreign guests and 8 local speakers participated. The presence of Christian Nolsøe (President-Elect of EFSUMB), Michael Bachmann Nielsen (Chairman EFSUMB Publications Committee), Dieter Nürnberg (President of DEGUM), Hans Peter Weskott, Lucas Greiner and Byung Ihn Choi (Co-opted Councilor of WFUMB) assured a very good scientific level of the meeting. From Romania, the faculty included many very experienced ultrasound specialists (Radu Badea, Adrian Săftoiu, Zeno Spârchez, Alina Popescu and others).

We consider that the meeting was a success, regarding both the number of participants and the level of the scientific presentations, and that it should be a very good practical guide for those who use or want to use CEUS in their daily practice. At this moment, in Romania, like in other many countries, there is a real emulation regarding the use or the introduction of CEUS in as many hospitals as possible.

Following the success of this meeting on the topic of CEUS, in September 2009 we shall have a workshop regarding contrast enhanced ultrasound for abdominal use in Timișoara that will include theoretical presentations and also a practical part, during a one week period. We hope that the number of participants to this meeting will confirm the interest for this method in Romania, and following the practical results of this meeting, many doctors will start to use CEUS on a daily basis.

Prof. Ioan Sporea, MD, PhD

President of the Romanian Society of Ultrasonography in Medicine and Biology