One Year after the US Contrast Agents Guidelines Completion

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Almost a year has passed since the meeting organized by EFSUMB in Rotterdam, with the participation of clinical experts from various European countries, from EFSUMB Safety and Education committees, and from 10 major Industrial companies. The contrast agents guidelines have been published both on the EFSUMB website and in the August issue of Ultraschall in der Medizin/European Journal of Ultrasound.

From the many comments that we have received, it has to be said that the guidelines have been accepted very positively. This is a significant contribution from EFSUMB improving and regulating the use of ultrasound in an emerging diagnostic area, mainly focused on liver lesion detection, characterization and follow-up after treatment.

During its meeting held in November in Geneva, the EFSUMB Executive Bureau agreed the principle of a complementary publication in European Radiology, and in an appropriate European clinical journal, to be defined. This was decided in order to disseminate the guidelines more widely. We also agreed that it should be translated into Italian, German, and French as has recently been done for Chinese.

As not much has changed since the Guidelines were written except the new restrictions imposed by the EMEA i.e. avoiding patients with unstable coronary artery disease and keeping all patients in the department for 30 mins, it has been agreed not to update these guidelines immediately, and wait until the next EUROSON meeting, to be held in Geneva in September 2005.

As this Guideline has proved so useful for the liver, guidelines on other applications would be welcome for other organs. Kidney, abdominal trauma, spleen, pancreas, vascular applications, breast and prostate have been considered. However the selection will take into consideration if published data are valid enough to bring out guidelines, or they would be still considered as research topics and then would not need guidelines.

Michel Claudon

Past President EFSUMB