Abstract
Ultrasound publishes articles on a wide range of subjects relevant to those involved in medical ultrasound, including clinical applications, new technologies, professional issues and education and training. Although many of these articles are research reports, most issues include at least one review article aimed at providing basic education in one of these subject areas. Ultrasound is intended as an educational resource for ultrasound users worldwide including BMUS members, but BMUS members can now get more benefit from studying our educational articles. Our publisher, SAGE Publications, has commissioned its website designer to create a new CPD website for use in conjunction with the journal. BMUS members will be able to access this new site via the members’ area of the BMUS website and register with their name and email address. The site will give access to a selection of educational articles, each accompanied by a set of questions provided by the authors. After studying an article, members can then answer the questions, and if they achieve the 70% pass mark, be awarded a CPD certificate. Each registered user will have an account that records all CPD points earned in this way. The site is being launched with a small selection of review articles that have been published recently in Ultrasound. It is hoped that one or more articles per issue can be used as CPD articles, and that a broad collection of articles can be accumulated as new issues are published. Please log into the BMUS website members’ area to register your details and look for relevant CPD articles.
Many BMUS members and non-members make valuable contributions to the BMUS Annual Scientific Meeting by presenting papers and posters or running practical workshops. Some presenters then go on to make a permanent record of their work by publishing it in Ultrasound. Now, all contributors can have a discoverable record of their work via the Ultrasound pages of the SAGE website. This May issue of Ultrasound is accompanied by an online-only supplement which contains all abstracts and titles from the Annual Scientific Meeting held in Manchester in December 2014. You can find the supplement at http://ult.sagepub.com
We begin this May issue with a report from Willits et al. on a very large retrospective study of unenhanced ultrasound scans of the liver. It seems that many of these scans were able to detect, but not characterise, focal liver lesions (FLL). There were more inconclusive scans in the outpatient cohort than in the GP cohort, and almost 50% of FLLs detected in cirrhotic livers were inconclusive. The results of this research will inform future NICE diagnostics guidance on the use of contrast agents. Clements et al. report on a study aimed at developing ultrasound criteria for the assessment of the internal jugular vein. They show that body position (sitting or supine) has a large impact on cross-sectional area, time average velocity and reflux measurements. Katie Johnson et al. report on a study of the relationship between temporomandibular joint effusion and a patient reported disability index of the jaw. The strong correlation suggests that the index might be used in clinical assessments in place of ultrasound measurements.
The previous issue of Ultrasound in February was a special issue devoted to education and training in ultrasound. You may have noticed that this special issue was larger than usual. In fact, it could have been much larger, because there were far more articles submitted than we could possibly publish in a single issue. So in this May issue, we include those education and training articles that were delayed. Parker and Byass describe the implementation of an audit tool based on case review by peers that helped identify the development needs of sonographers and monitor the quality of the scanning service. Diane Dickson reports on a study of how interactive educational technologies may help sonography students relate theory to practice. Grace Carolan-Rees describes a cost model for an ultrasound virtual reality training simulator. It seems that in most circumstances, cost savings can be made by using the simulator rather than traditional practical training methods.
Returning to the use of contrast in the detection of liver lesions, Obaro and Ryan review the grey scale and contrast-enhanced ultrasound appearances of a range of benign liver lesions. Finally, a case report by Greenall and Drage demonstrates the ultrasound features of sebaceous carcinoma of the lip and describes the normal anatomy of this area.