High incidence of defective ultrasound transducers in use in routine clinical practice.

Aims: The objective was to evaluate the function of ultrasound transducers in use in routine clinical practice and thereby estimating the incidence of defective transducers.

Methods And Results: The study comprised a one-time test of 676 transducers from 7 manufacturers which were in daily use in clinical departments at 32 hospitals. They were tested with the Sonora FirstCall Test System; 39.

[First aid measures by bystanders at the place of accident. A prospective, epidemiologic study in the Vienna area].

The object of this prospective, epidemiological study was to determine whether bystanders provided necessary first aid measures in the prehospital trauma setting, whether they performed these measures correctly, and whether the level of first aid training affected the quality of first aid measures performed. Data were collected by means of a questionnaire, which was filled out between March and July 2000 for all cases attended to by the Vienna Ambulance Service. A total of 2812 cases were documented.