64 British Medical Ultrasonics Group

6. Ultrasonic Assessment of Left Ventricular Con- tractility Following Administration of Vasoactive Drugs G. STEFAN

J udendorf-Strassengel, Austria

Plotting the left ventricular internal dimensions or the midpoint distance at 50 msec intervals against the elapsed time on a high quality echogram for a number of heart cycles, one can establish a curve, which represents the course of left ventricular contraction during ejection period.

Curves for various drugs were constructed establishing the inotropic, chronotropic and dromotropic effect prior to, during and after administration of the drugs.

It could be shown, that solely by means of this curve, it is possible to obtain reliable qualitative and quantitative information on alterations of the contractile state of the left ventricular myocardium in patients, who are subjected to therapy with vascoactive drugs.

7. Echography in Diseases of Periorbital Sinuses H. FROHWALD and P. TILL

University of Vienna, Austria

A-scan echography, as used for the examination of the orbit, can reveal defects in the bony orbital wall and detect tumor tissues in the sinuses outside the orbit. The extension of such a lesion can be measured in directions where the sound beam passes through a bone defect. The following criteria help differentiate between the two main groups of lesions: (1) Muco-pyoceles are large, regularly shaped and sharply outlined. A single, large, regularly outlined bone

defect is the rule. Usually, double spikes from the cyst wall can be displayed. (2) Periorbital malignancies such as carcinoma and, less frequently, sarcoma--by contrast-- show irregular structures and borders. They usually have a low reflectivity similar to that of mucopyoceles: single higher spikes, however, within the pattern are the rule. Often spontaneous movements from single spikes can be seen (blood flow from larger tumor vessels). Results: in 25 histologically verified cases of mucoceles the differential diagnosis was correctly made by echography in 24 cases. In 20 histologically verified cases of periorbital malignancies the differential diagnosiswas correctly made by echography in 18 cases.

8. The Role of Ultrasound in the Diagnosis of Soft Tissue Hematomas in Hemophilic Patients CH. JANTSCH

University of Vienna, Austria

Ultrasound scanning permits, for the first time, direct visualization of soft tissue hematomas. Since the test is non- invasive, causes no discomfort and does not expose the patient to ionizing radiation, it can hence be ordered without hesitation, even in small children. One illustrative case, where ultrasound permitted differentiation between acute appendicitis and an intramuscular hematoma is presented.

Based on the examination of 29 cases the use of ultra- sound scanning for the follow-up of soft tissue hematomas in hemophilia patients is shown.

N E D E R L A N D S E V E R E N I G I N G voor U L T R A G E L U I D in de G E N E E S K U N D E en de BIOLOGIE

The Annual Scientific Meeting of the Dutch Society for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology was held in Utrecht on 17 October 1974. The meeting was largely devoted to a discussion, under the chairmanship of the President, Dr. J. Somer, of a comparison of two commercially available

grey-scale ultrasonic scanners--the Kretz Combison I1 and and Picker E.D.C. The discussion was preceded by a paper on Grey-scale Echography by J. M. Thijssen of the Ophthal- mological Biophysics Laboratory at the University of Nijmegen.