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2013 – YEAR OF THE ULTRASOUND

Posted in Bio Instrumentation in Experimental Life Sciences Research, Biomarkers & Medical Diagnostics, CANCER BIOLOGY & Innovations in Cancer Therapy, Cancer Prevention: Research & Programs, Health Economics and Outcomes Research, Imaging-based Cancer Patient Management, Medical Devices R&D and Inventions, Medical Devices R&D Investment, Medical Imaging Technology, Image Processing/Computing, MRI, CT, Nuclear Medicine, Ultra Sound, tagged 2013, AIUM, breast cancer, Cancer - General, cancer management, Clinical trial, contrast enhanced ultrasound imaging, health, imaging guided therapy, medicine, ovarian cancer, Prostate cancer, research, ultrasound, ultrasound imaging, ultrasound study on April 10, 2013| 2 Comments »

2013 – YEAR OF THE ULTRASOUND

Author – Writer: Dror Nir, PhD

To those of you who did not know, 2013 is the year of the ultrasound: http://www.ultrasound2013.org/. This initiative was launched by AIUM and its objectives:

Raise awareness of the value and benefits of ultrasound among patients, health care providers, and insurers
Provide ultrasound education and evidence-based guidelines for health care providers
Educate insurers about the cost savings and patient benefits associated with performing an ultrasound study when scientific evidence supports its potential effectiveness compared to other imaging modalities
Educate patients about the benefits of ultrasound as the appropriate imaging modality for their care
Encourage the incorporation of ultrasound into medical education

Quoting from the ultrasound first web-site:

The initiative is designed to call attention to the safe, effective, and affordable advantages of ultrasound as an alternative to other imaging modalities that are more costly and/or emit radiation. For a growing number of clinical conditions, ultrasound has been shown to be equally effective in its diagnostic capability, with a distinct advantage in safety and cost over computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. Despite this advantage, evidence suggests that ultrasound is vastly underutilized. Ultrasound First focuses on educating health care workers, medical educators, insurers, and patients of the benefits of ultrasound in medical care. “There is growing support and public awareness for the need to reduce and carefully monitor patients’ exposure to radiation during medical imaging. The use of ultrasound as an alternative imaging modality will help achieve that goal while reducing cost,” states AIUM President Alfred Abuhamad, MD. “Many health care workers and insurers are unacquainted with the range of conditions for which ultrasound has been shown to have superior diagnostic capabilities. Disseminating this knowledge to health care workers and incorporating ultrasound in medical protocols where scientific evidence has shown its diagnostic efficacy will undoubtedly improve patient safety and reduce cost. The time to act is now.”

A primary component of Ultrasound First is providing clinical evidence for the use of ultrasound. To that aim, the Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine has launched a special feature, the Sound Judgment Series, consisting of invited articles highlighting the clinical value of using ultrasound first in specific clinical diagnoses where ultrasound has shown comparative or superior value. Clinical conditions that will be addressed in the series include postmenopausal bleeding, right lower quadrant pain, pelvic pain, right upper quadrant pain, and shoulder pain, among others. This series will serve as an important educational resource for health care workers and educators. On the clinical evidence page one can find reasoning for why ultrasound first. Not much related to cancer diagnosis and management. The only interesting claim is: “Ultrasound-guided surgery: Its use to remove tumors from women who have palpable breast cancer is much more successful than standard surgery in excising all the cancerous tissue while sparing as much healthy tissue as possible.”

In support of this initiative The Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine has launched a special series, Sound Judgment, comprised of invited articles highlighting the clinical value of using ultrasound first in specific clinical diagnoses where ultrasound has shown comparative or superior value. So far it includes only two items related to management of cancer: Sonography of Facial Cutaneous Basal Cell Carcinoma, A First-line Imaging Technique; by Ximena Wortsman, MD, and Quantitative Assessment of Tumor Blood Flow Changes in a Murine Breast Cancer Model After Adriamycin Chemotherapy Using Contrast-Enhanced Destruction-Replenishment Sonography; by Jian-Wei Wang, MD et. al. The devoted readers of our Open Access Scientific Journal might find the article by Dr. Wortsman, MD bringing complementary information to a previous post of mine: Virtual Biopsy – is it possible?. Qouting from this article: “Cutaneous basal cell carcinoma is the most common cancer in human beings, and the face is its most frequent location. Basal cell carcinoma is rarely lethal but can generate a high degree of disfigurement. Of all imaging techniques, sonography has proven to support the diagnosis and provide detailed anatomic data on extension in all axes, the exact location, vascularity, and deeper involvement. This information can be used for improving management and the cosmetic results of patients.”

The article gives clear presentation of the problem and includes demonstrative pictures:

Figure: Basal cell carcinoma with dermal involvement (transverse view, nasal tip). Grayscale sonography (A) and 3-dimensional reconstruction (B, 5- to 8-second sweep) show a 10.1-mm (wide) × 1.4-mm (deep) well-defined hypoechoic oval lesion (between markers in A and outlined in B) that affects the dermis (d) of the left nasal wing. Notice the hyperechoic spots (arrowheads) within the lesion. The nasal cartilage (c) is unremarkable; asterisk indicates basal cell carcinoma.

Basal cell carcinoma with dermal and subcutaneous involvement (transverse view, frontal region). A, Grayscale sonography shows a 11.4-mm (wide) × 6.6-mm (deep) well-defined oval hypoechoic lesion that involves the dermis (d) and subcutaneous tissue (st). There are hyperechoic spots (arrowheads) within the tumor. B, Color Doppler sonography shows increased vascularity within the tumor (asterisk). C, Three-dimensional sonographic reconstruction (5- to 8-second sweep) highlights the lesion (asterisk, outlined); b indicates bony margin of the skull.

Figure: Pleomorphic presentations of basal cell carcinoma lesions on grayscale sonography (transverse views). Notice the variable shapes of the tumors.

Figure: Frequently, blood flow can be detected within the tumor and its periphery, with slow-flow arteries or veins. The latter vascular data can orient the clinician about the distribution and amount of blood flow that he or she will face during surgery. Despite the fact that basal cell carcinomas usually do not present high vascularity, it should be kept in mind that many of basal cell carcinoma operations are performed in the offices of clinicians and not in the main operating rooms of large hospitals. Nevertheless, the finding of high vascularity within a clinically diagnosed basal cell carcinoma may suggest another type of skin cancer that could occasionally mimic basal cell carcinoma, such as squamous cell carcinoma, Merkel cell carcinoma, or a metastatic tumor. The above figure presents variable degrees of vascularity in basal cell carcinoma lesions going from hypovascular to hypervascular on color and power Doppler sonography (transverse views).

Figure: The depth correlation between sonography (variable frequency) and histologic analysis in facial basal cell carcinoma has been reported to be excellent. Thus, the intraclass correlation coefficient for comparing thickness for the two methods (sonography and histologic analysis) that has been described in literature is 0.9 (intraclass correlation coefficient values ≥0.9 are very good; 0.70–0.89 are good; 0.50–0.69 are moderate; 0.30–049 are mediocre; and ≤0.29 are bad). Two rare sonographic artifacts have been described in basal cell carcinoma. One is the “angled border” that is produced by an inflammatory giant cell reaction underlying the tumor, which may falsely increase the apparent size of the tumor. The other is the “blurry border,” which is produced by large hypertrophy of the sebaceous glands surrounding the lesion. According to the literature, both artifacts can be recognized by a well-trained operator. The figure above presents the sonographic involvement of deeper layers such as the nasal cartilage and orbicularis muscles in the face is of critical importance and may change the decision about the type of surgery. Basal cell carcinoma with nasal cartilage involvement (3-dimensional reconstruction, 5- to 8-second sweep, transverse view, left nasal wing). Notice the extension of the tumor (asterisk, outlined) to the nasal cartilage region (c); d indicates dermis.

Basal cell carcinoma with involvement of the orbicularis muscle of the eyelid (m). Grayscale sonography (transverse view, right lower eyelid) shows that the tumor (asterisk) affects the muscle layer (arrows).