Editorial

This issue of Ultrasound in the spring of 2018 brings you an invited review, five articles on original research and a case report besides the usual feature of echoes. The invited review deals with a very important subject in the field of obstetrics, the management of small for gestational age (SGA) babies. Many SGA babies may be growth restricted and if undiagnosed in the antenatal period can potentially lead to stillbirth. Stillbirth rates are much higher in pregnancies with foetal growth restriction (FGR) when compared to those where the foetus is appropriately grown. Distinction between a constitutionally small baby and one with FGR is very important because while the former may be a physiological phenomenon the latter isn’t. Gardosi and colleagues present an eloquent review of the subject elucidating it with their own original work on management of SGA foetuses with reference to the use customised growth charts. Gunabushanam and colleagues present their work on the innovative use of computer assisted technique of assessment of spectral Doppler ultrasound in detecting tardus parvus waveforms in carotid artery. Despite certain drawbacks of their study methodology, this work should encourage prospective trials for further evaluation and validation of this technique. Hamilton and Edwards illustrate the benefit of introduction of the three vessel and trachea view obtained during ultrasound examination of the foetal heart. They present an audit of their comparative detection rates of cardiac abnormality both before and after the introduction of this new technique and also inform us about some of the disadvantages of adoption of this technique. McKenna and colleagues investigated inter-operator and intra-operator variability in diagnostic ultrasound of the carotid arteries across a centralised vascular network. They compared the performance of 15 vascular scientists in measuring flow parameters in internal carotid and common carotid artery of a single subject. Not unexpectedly, their findings raise issues about quality assurance of technique of measuring carotid artery flow parameters. Fang et al. write about their retrospective review of a large number of patients with parathyroid lesions who underwent ultrasound examination. Their work provides information about the difficulties in discrimination between benign and malignant lesions and gives clues for suspicion of malignancy in these lesions. Miller working with his colleagues report on their project on detection of return of pulsatile flow in the common carotid artery of patients following cardiopulmonary bypass surgery. Quite understandably, they confirm that 2-D ultrasound examination and colour Doppler are reliable in the detection of return of pulsatile flow. Lastly, Gray and colleagues describe an interesting case of vasa previa. Their manuscript contains vivid images which brings our imagination close to reality.

Once again in this issue we find ourselves in a position to be able to include five articles on original research and look forward to receiving more submissions on research work which might include systematic reviews or prospective review of practice or processes involving the use of ultrasound. To keep to our tradition of publishing a wide range of topics in ultrasound practice, we would like to encourage and look forward to hearing from researchers from a varied and a wider field of work with ultrasound.

We hope that the coming summer brings out the brightest and most novel ideas in your mind and that we all get a chance to be enlightened by your original work. Please give words to your work and give us the opportunity to publicise it to the world of our readers.

Best wishes.