Intravenous contrast-enhanced sonography in children and adolescents – a single center experience

Compared to adult patients, ultrasonography in children and adolescents is much more common, due to lack of ionizing radiation, and its wide availability. With the introduction of contrast-media for use in ultrasonography, one major drawback of the method could be overcome. In Europe, SonoVue(®) is the only widely available agent, which due to improved stability makes it possible to image normal and diseased tissue perfusion and vascularization with high accuracy. Inability to hold the breath and voluntary body movement of the patient is less of an obstacle compared to color Doppler techniques and makes the method very attractive for use in children, which, depending on age, may not be very cooperative. Use of intravenous contrast-medium in minors is currently very limited for several reasons: availability, lack of recommendation in national and international guidelines, and lack of official licensing. The article will touch medical indications, technique, safety considerations, and perspective of intravenous use of contrast-media in children and adolescents, including data from a 6-year period in 37 patients.