Volume 11 Issue 1 (February) - Australasian Society for Ultrasound ...

EDITORIAL
Authors in Ireland, Denmark, Holland and Australia add an ­
international flavour to our journal
Our first issue of the New Year has an
international flavour, with research
and reviews from Ireland, Denmark,
Holland and Australia. There is also
an interesting letter to the editor with
excellent advice for sonographers
and sonologists.
Jacqueline Cartmill, now in
Belfast, and her colleagues at the
University of Sydney present three
Prof Ron Benzie
fetal intracranial anomalies where
MRI was used in addition to ultrasound for prenatal diagnosis.
As we all know, working out what the actual lesion in the
fetal head is can be a challenge. If we have access to MRI
in a tertiary centre, we should consider its use. In the cases
presented, it certainly helped parental decision-making.
Lisa Hui has written a thorough review of Australian charts
for assessing fetal growth. This is a complex area and more
studies are needed. The author concludes her excellent summation
of current knowledge with recommendations, which
we would do well to consider implementing in our practices.
Those of you who did not manage to attend the 37th
Annual Scientific Meeting at Cairns last year will find Part
2 of the abstracts of interest (Part 1 was published in the
December 2007 issue).
Our CADUCEUS (Collaborative Australasian Danish
Undertaking for Continued Excellence in Ultrasound) connection
has again borne fruit. Torben Lorentzen and Christian
Nolsøe, both recent ASUM visiting speakers, provide a review
of interventional ultrasound in gastroenterology. This is a rapidly
expanding area and undoubtedly we will see more clinical
applications for its use.
And from Holland, Eveline Bauman and Lisanne Hollander
and colleagues here and in the University of Nijmegan found
that there are several factors which affect parental desire to
find out their baby’s gender before birth. We might think that
the answer to the question ‘Why do you want to know baby’s
sex’ is a simple one, however, it has uncovered factors we
might not have thought about.
The two lead authors were final year medical students
when they conducted their research and it was their first
such project. Doubtless, they learned a lot about formulating
and testing a hypothesis, as well as doing rigorous
literature searches and writing up the final article. We hope
the experience will have encouraged them to continue a
research interest.
WFUMB 2009 Congress
At the time of writing it is only 18 months until the WFUMB
2009 Congress. I would urge you to go to the website www.
wfumb2009.com and see for yourself the innovative program
being created by the Committee from ASUM, which is hosting
this major event – the Sydney ‘Olympics of the Ultrasound
World’! If you would like to participate in any way please
contact us.
Prof Ron Benzie
Letter to the editor – Bush sonography, flying solo
For a sonographer working alone in a small rural hospital,
life can be both confronting and rewarding.
You are responsible for diagnostic scans when there are
no other imaging modalities available. The nearest major
centre with a CT may be hundreds of kilometers away. This
can mean seriously disrupting families plus the added cost of
transport. If a diagnosis can be made in a small hospital environment
a lot of precious time and money can be saved.
I started ultrasound in country western Victoria and
south-east South Australia and spent 12 years on a very steep
learning curve. Although I undertook the RMIT and ASUM
DMU courses, my main focus was hands-on scanning. The
medical staff had the notion that if you could hold a transducer
you were automatically a competent sonographer. This
was a serious expectation that had to be overcome.
In the ensuing years, I encountered ruptured spleens and
kidneys from sporting mishaps, torsion of an ovarian cyst in
a 10-year-old when the clinical diagnosis was appendicitis
and numerous other medical emergencies.
There were many memorable times as well. I was once
called during the early hours of the morning to the labour
ward to scan for fetal presentation only to stay for a happy
uneventful birth.
Sadly, sometimes the outcomes were not so good and it
was always difficult to be caught up in the highs and lows of
people’s lives in a small rural community.
At present I am employed at a busy suburban medical clinic
equipped with state-of-the-art CT and ultrasound machines
including all the bells and whistles. Life is certainly easier but I
will never stop appreciating where I started to learn my trade.
The top survival tips in a small country hospital are as
follows:
n Do not try and pretend to know what you really do not.
That is, know your limitations.
n If you are struggling to obtain a good diagnostic scan for
various reasons, say so.
n Always spend time to expand your knowledge base by
reading and undertaking courses and attending conferences
whenever possible.
n Use experts in major hospitals or ultrasound clinic. They
are always more than happy to give you some direction and
advice and are simply a phone call away.
In summary, work closely with the physicians, it’s all
about teamwork.
Chairmaine Burdett
ASUM Ultrasound Bulletin 2008 February 11 (1)