Why consider contrast-enhanced ultrasound (ce-US) in children?
Michael Riccabona
Affiliation and address for correspondence
J Ultrason 2014; 14 (59)
DOI:
10.15557/JoU.2014.0048
Abstract
Children are very specific; particularly in terms of radiation sensitivity. They not only have a tenfold higher sensitivity towards radiation, but also a longer expected lifespan where potentially radiation induced tumours may manifest (1–7). Therefore radiation protection is of outmost importance. At present – with standard imaging algorithms - many conditions are diagnosed by imaging which using ionising radiation (x-ray); particularly those with relatively high radiation burden such as fluoroscopy or CT should be replaced by other nonionising imaging methods if feasible and available – following the ALARA-Principle (4,6,8) .