Ultrasound Of Gastrointestinal Tract

:- Foreword :-

Two to three decades ago only very few radiologists, such as F. Weill and other pioneers
in the fi eld, believed in the diagnostic potential of ultrasound for the study of the gastrointestinal tract. The main applications of ultrasound were confi ned to the study of
solid visceral organs, the female pelvis and obstetrics. Rapid progress in computer technology
and in transducer design has opened totally new horizons for ultrasound, for
instance in musculoskeletal pathology, as well as in the gastrointestinal tract in children
and adults.
Today ultrasound plays a major role as the primary imaging procedure in acute
abdominal conditions involving the gastrointestinal tract. The indications for surgery
in patients suspected of acute appendicitis have dramatically improved due to the widespread
application of ultrasound.
I am very much indebted to the editors of this book, Prof. G. Maconi and Prof. G. Bianchi
Porro, both internationally recognized experts in abdominal ultrasound. They developed
the concept of this volume and have been very successful in involving several other distinguished
ultrasound experts from both Europe and the Far East.
I would like to congratulate the editors and the authors most sincerely on this outstanding
volume which provides a comprehensive overview of the use of ultrasound in
acute and chronic diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.
This book will be of great value, not only for radiologists, but also for gastroenterologists,
abdominal surgeons, pediatricians and oncologists. They will fi nd it a very helpful
guide in their daily clinical practice.
I am confi dent that it will meet with the same success among readers as previous
volumes published in this series.
Leuven Albert L. Baert