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Objective Chronic venous disease is a common vascular condition, affecting up to 60% of the population worldwide. In Australia and New Zealand, chronic venous insufficiency ultrasound examinations are primarily performed by sonographers. This research aimed to explore how ultrasound examinations are being performed, providing insights into current practices and recommendations for quality improvement. Method A questionnaire was distributed to capture demographics, practices of ultrasound, examination techniques, the use of nomenclature and experience of the respondents. Results The analysis of 97 responses showed a heterogeneity in the clinical application of ultrasound. Most sonographers performed less than two scans per day within 30–45 minutes. Deep venous incompetence was routinely excluded by all respondents. The majority used standing, sitting and reverse Trendelenburg position except for a few using supine position. Manual augmentation was the preferred provocation manoeuvre. Anatomical variations at the junctional level were not adequately evaluated. Although Giacomini’s vein was assessed by 80%, 57% of those did not evaluate paradoxical reflux. Seventy-five per cent routinely assessed non-saphenous reflux; however, over 50% were unfamiliar with lymph node venous networks. A significant number of out-dated venous terms were still being used. A low participation rate in continuing professional development was identified, which might be attributable to limited education and training programs. Conclusion The study is a multi-faceted exploration that identified a need for standardized diagnostic and reporting guidelines. Our results could explain discrepancies in diagnostic findings and inconsistencies in the use of medical terminology, with implications for clinical decision making and assessment of surgical outcome.

Space-based target surveillance is important for aerospace safety. However, with the increasing complexity of the space environment, the stellar target and strong noise interference pose difficulties for space target detection. Simultaneously, it is hard to balance real-time processing with computational performance for the onboard processing platform owing to resource limitations. The heterogeneous multi-core architecture has corresponding processing capabilities, providing a hardware implementation platform with real-time and computational performance for space-based applications. This paper first developed a multi-stage joint detection and tracking model (MJDTM) for space targets in optical image sequences. This model combined an improved local contrast method and the Kalman filter to detect and track the potential targets and use differences in movement status to suppress the stellar targets. Then, a heterogeneous multi-core processing system based on a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) and digital signal processor (DSP) was established as the space-based image processing system. Finally, MJDTM was optimized and implemented on the above image processing system. The experiments conducted with simulated and actual image sequences examine the accuracy and efficiency of the MJDTM, which has a 95% detection probability while the false alarm rate is 10−4. According to the experimental results, the algorithm hardware implementation can detect targets in an image with 1024 × 1024 pixels in just 22.064 ms, which satisfies the real-time requirements of space-based surveillance.

Background: Duplex ultrasound is the first line of investigation for patients seeking treatment for varicose veins disease. In Australia, chronic venous insufficiency ultrasound examinations (CVI-US) are primarily performed by sonographers. The use of clinical guidelines facilitates the practice of ultrasound, and more importantly, provides an assurance to the integrity and quality of the examinations. Our aim is to assess the quality of currently available guidelines and provide recommendations for choosing the appropriate guideline to use and suggestions for future guideline development. Method: We performed a systematic literature search of the Cochrane, EMBASE, EBSCO, Medline, PubMed, Google and the database of the University of Sydney. The scope covered guidelines from 2000 to 2020 available in English. Identified guidelines were appraised by four independent reviewers (sonographers) using the revised version of the Appraisal of Guidelines Research and Evaluation instrument. Results: A total of 10 guidelines were included for critical appraisal. Analysis of the results showed most guidelines were rated low quality except for the International Union of Phlebology consensus document (2006) and technical guideline by Zygmunt and colleagues (2020). Overall, Domain 1 (Scope and purposes) achieved the highest score (total score = 67.9% ± 17.3%), whereas, Domain 3 (Rigour of development) had the lowest score (total score = 41.1% ± 13.5%). Conclusion:The overall quality of CVI-US guidelines is poor. This study highlights the demand for developing ultrasound guidelines based on methodologically sound principles along with updated scientific evidence. A stronger emphasis should be given to clinical applicability in the Australian context.