Editorial

This issue of May 2019 is designated as a special issue for cardiovascular system. However, readers will note that there are some papers in this issue which are not from cardiovascular system because some of the papers submitted for this special issue could not be finalised in time for reasons related to submission and peer-review. We are hoping to include these papers in a future issue. Majority of the papers here, however, are of a cardiovascular nature.

Here we enclose a review article, four works of original research and two interesting case reports.

Rafailidis et al. present an informative retrospective analysis of a database from their radiology department to identify cases with the diagnosis of transient perivascular inflammation of the carotid artery (TIPIC) syndrome. Their purpose was to identify ultrasound (US) images including B-mode technique, colour, power Doppler technique and contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS). They conclude that US remains the first-line modality for the evaluation of TIPIC syndrome, capable of providing all the information needed, especially if supplemented with the administration of microbubbles so that the enhancement of lesions can be evaluated.

In a study by Janus et al., preclinical US was used in combination with a semi-automatic image processing method to track arterial distension alterations in mouse models of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) and atherosclerosis. The method was applied to high-resolution preclinical US images of the abdominal aorta in two murine models of arterial disease (AAA and atherosclerosis) and was compared to the standard analysis method of manually measuring vessel diameter at systole and diastole. The feasibility of the semi-automatic method, US data were validated with histological tissue staining. The authors demonstrate that their novel analysis method has the advantage of reduced user-dependency, and improved reproducibility and sensitivity. They also confirm the hypothesis that arterial distension can be used as an early marker for detection of vascular disease.

Oates et al. studied 220 elite rugby players aiming to define relationships between aortic root dimensions and body surface area (BSA) and height. They performed linear and allometric scaling on the relationship between aortic measurements and BSA and height. Scaling of cardiac dimensions removes the impact of body size, allowing meaningful inter/intra group comparisons. These authors recommend linearly scaling aortic root dimensions to height in elite Rugby League athletes and discourage the use of BSA as a linear scaling quantity and suggest that allometric scaling is also effective when using both BSA and height.

Ismail et al. studied 100 children with sickle cell anaemia (SCA) in order to determine the prevalence and pattern of abnormal blood flow velocities in children with SCA from northern Nigeria using transcranial Doppler (TCD) and to correlate TCD velocities with haematological and biochemical markers of haemolysis. They showed that there was low prevalence of abnormal TCD velocities in children with SCA and that the low prevalence was unrelated to low markers of haemolysis in their study population.

Routhu et al. describe the morphological characteristics of heterotaxy and suggest an approach in evaluating the spectrum of abnormalities associated with this syndrome. Their study was based on 12 cases diagnosed sonographically as heterotaxy syndrome. The results of examinations were re-evaluated and compared by foetal autopsy. They aimed to find common features of visceral heterotaxy syndrome (VHS) on prenatal US as well as on foetal autopsy. The authors recommend that this syndrome should be accurately diagnosed in the prenatal period in order to allow appropriate counselling of parents.

A case report by Verhagen et al. describes and illustrates how CEUS may be of use to further assess hepatic lesions in a complex case of multifactorial hepatic pathology. Radiologists, haematologists and pathologists should be aware that multifocal focal nodular hyperplasia is a part of the differential diagnosis of liver lesions in a child with liver damage due to complex disease and treatment. Biopsy remains the gold standard if there is a concomitant concurrent clinical suspicion of graft versus host disease.

Pathak and Grosu report a series of cases with antenatal detection of foetal intrahepatic calcification. These are relatively common with an incidence of approximately 5–10:10,000. Improved imaging equipment and techniques have resulted in an increased detection of intrahepatic calcification in the foetus during pregnancy. Based on the appearance, echogenicity, calcification, size, number, presence of vascularity or calcification and any additional abnormalities, causes for these echogenic lesions could be of various origins. They emphasise the need to refer for further investigations in a foetal medicine centre if the lesions undergo significant increase in size, change in vascularity or findings of hydrops as in these conditions the diagnosis and management may involve higher perinatal morbidity and mortality.

In 2018, we saw our journal making significant progress and generate much more interest amongst readers than ever before. We accepted 70 papers for peer-review compared to 60 in 2017. Acceptance rate, a key measure of quality of editorial work and peer-review was 48% until October 2018 when compared to 65% in 2017. This acceptance rate is the lowest since 2013.The number of full text downloads from PubMed Central until October 2018 was 75,445 when compared to 38,954 in 2017. During the same time, articles from Ultrasound were cited on 80 occasions on Web of Science compared to 44 in 2017.

We thank our readers, editors and peer-reviewers in raising the standard of submissions to and publications made in Ultrasound and hope that we will continue to publish high-quality scientific papers to achieve higher standards.