Main Campus Ultrasound Department

The Department of Ultrasound at Qingdao Municipal Hospital became an independent department in 2001. After several generations of dedicated effort, it has now become the Ultrasound Diagnosis and Treatment Center serving Qingdao's municipal medical institutions. The Ultrasound Department at the main hospital currently has 14 physicians: 1 chief physician, 5 deputy chief physicians, 5 attending physicians, and 3 resident physicians. All hold master's degrees; the staffing structure is well balanced, and the core team is strong. The department is equipped with high-end color Doppler ultrasound diagnostic systems from Philips, GE, Mindray, and other manufacturers, providing support for precise diagnosis and treatment.

In addition to routine ultrasound examinations of the abdomen, urinary system, gynecological organs, blood vessels, small organs, and pediatric conditions, the department currently also offers multiple distinctive programs in which it excels, including interventional ultrasound, contrast-enhanced ultrasound, hysterosalpingography, gastrointestinal ultrasound, musculoskeletal ultrasound, and pelvic-floor ultrasound. The department's various new ultrasound technologies and programs, including ultrasound-guided tumor thermal ablation, ultrasound-guided interventional treatment for musculoskeletal pain, ultrasound assessment of pelvic-floor dysfunction, and gastrointestinal contrast studies, have received widespread recognition from clinical physicians and patients.

Ultrasound intervention: The interventional ultrasound subspecialty was established in 2014. The mature interventional procedures currently performed by the department cover almost every field of interventional ultrasound in China: 1. Needle biopsy of tumors in all parts of the body: needle biopsy of solid lesions in the liver, pancreas, spleen, kidney, retroperitoneum, superficial organs (such as the thyroid, breast, and lymph nodes), pelvis, and elsewhere. 2. Diagnostic and therapeutic injection and aspiration procedures: applicable to pleural effusion, ascites, abscesses, hematomas, cysts, polycystic liver, polycystic kidney, bile leaks, musculoskeletal joint injection therapy, and so forth. 3. Cyst sclerotherapy: treatment of thyroid cysts, breast cysts, hepatic cysts with diameters greater than 5 cm, renal cysts with diameters greater than 5 cm, and ovarian cysts with diameters greater than 5 cm. 4. Catheter drainage: catheter drainage for obstructive jaundice, hydronephrosis, pancreatic pseudocysts, abscesses, hematomas, pleural effusion, ascites, pericardial effusion, bladder cystostomy, and so forth. 5. Microwave or radiofrequency ablation: treatment of solid tumors of the liver, thyroid, parathyroid, breast, thoracoabdominal wall, lymph nodes, and so forth, as well as hyperthyroidism, uterine fibroids, endometriosis, and so forth. Contrast-enhanced ultrasound is known as noninvasive microcirculatory angiography. Based on a conventional ultrasound examination, an ultrasound contrast agent is injected through a peripheral vein to dynamically observe in real time and quantitatively evaluate blood-flow perfusion in organs, tissues, and local lesions. This enables ultrasound to clearly display microvessels and tissue perfusion, provides richer and clearer diagnostic information than color Doppler ultrasound, greatly improves ultrasound diagnostic performance, and achieves examination results similar to those of contrast-enhanced CT or contrast-enhanced MRI scans. As a mature technique, contrast-enhanced ultrasound is currently performed in approximately 1,000 or more cases each year. Scope of application: 1. Differentiation of benign and malignant nodules. 2. Early detection of minute lesions. 3. Assessment of organ rupture and bleeding after trauma. 4. Follow-up after organ transplantation surgery. 5. Preoperative localization for needle biopsy and other interventional procedures. 6. Preoperative and postoperative assessment of tumor ablation. Four-dimensional hysterosalpingo contrast sonography: This is a new technology for examining fallopian-tube patency. It offers advantages that cannot be matched by other fallopian-tube examination techniques and has raised the diagnosis and treatment of the fallopian tubes to a new level. Our department introduced this technology in 2017 and has completed nearly 1,000 examinations, including more than 10 successful spontaneous pregnancies. The new microbubble ultrasound contrast agent, Sonovue, is injected into the uterine cavity through a catheter inserted into the uterine cavity under ultrasound monitoring. It displays in real time the morphology of the uterine cavity, the course of the fallopian tubes, and the dispersion in the pelvis, thereby assessing fallopian-tube patency and comprehensively observing lesions in the uterine cavity, pelvis, and elsewhere. Compared with previous oil-based iodinated contrast imaging, it causes less irritation and fewer allergic reactions, and offers the advantages of dynamic real-time imaging, direct visualization, safety, noninvasiveness, no radiation, a high diagnostic rate, and strong repeatability. Gastrointestinal contrast-enhanced ultrasound is performed by taking a visualization-enhancing agent to fill the gastrointestinal lumen, eliminating interference from gas in the stomach and making the layers of the gastrointestinal wall clearer. It is particularly suitable for people who do not wish to or cannot undergo gastroscopy. Scope of application: 1. Organic gastric lesions: gastritis, peptic ulcer, gastric cancer, gastric polyps, gastric submucosal lesions, gastric fundal varices, and so forth. 2. Congenital gastric lesions: congenital hypertrophic pyloric stenosis, gastric duplication, duodenal atresia, and so forth. 3. Functional gastric lesions: gastroesophageal reflux, gastroduodenal reflux, poor gastric peristaltic function, and so forth. Musculoskeletal and nerve ultrasound and interventional treatment: Musculoskeletal and nerve ultrasound is a recent advance and research focus in the field of ultrasound medicine. It includes not only the diagnosis of muscle and bone diseases, but also the examination and differential diagnosis of diseases involving the joints, nerves, skin, soft tissues, and other structures. The department has repeatedly sent young physicians to Beijing Jishuitan Hospital and Peking University Third Hospital for further training, where they mastered advanced diagnostic and treatment techniques and established a relatively complete musculoskeletal ultrasound subspecialty. In the area of interventional treatment using musculoskeletal ultrasound, applications are extensive and serve numerous clinical departments, including joint-capsule injection for frozen shoulder, medication injection for various tendinitis conditions, release treatment for nerve entrapment, nerve blocks for various types of pain, aspiration of joint effusions and medication injection for arthritis, assistance with preoperative anesthesia, postoperative rehabilitation, and so forth. Pelvic-floor ultrasound: This is the first-choice imaging method for diagnosing female pelvic-floor dysfunction. It is convenient in real time and highly accurate, can promptly detect morphological changes in the pelvic-floor structures before clinical symptoms appear and facilitate early diagnosis, and can provide a simple and practical diagnostic basis for the diagnosis and treatment performed by professionals in obstetrics and gynecology, urology, pelvic-floor rehabilitation, and related disciplines.

In recent years, the department has contributed to the compilation of 4 books, published 5 SCI papers, published more than 30 papers in national statistical-source journals, and obtained 4 invention patents.

As a national standardized residency training base, the department has trained more than 40 outstanding professionals in ultrasound medicine. It undertakes medical-student teaching for Rehabilitation University, Qingdao University, Dalian Medical University, and other institutions, and also provides training for visiting physicians from surrounding provinces, cities, and regions.

In line with the requirements for developing distinctive disciplines, and taking subspecialty team building as an opportunity, the department has refined and quantified the development goals of 6 subspecialties, including interventional ultrasound, superficial-organ ultrasound, women's and pediatric ultrasound, and vascular ultrasound, assigning them to groups and individuals. It has formed a team in which everyone has a specialized area of expertise and each subspecialty group has its own professional characteristics, so that everyone has goals and everyone has responsibilities. The department regularly holds special lectures and case discussions to strengthen the exchange of diagnostic experience among its physicians and build a solid foundation. Each year, it sends physicians to renowned domestic ultrasound institutions to learn new ultrasound technologies in a targeted manner and improve their professional and technical capabilities.

Edit time: 2026/5/20 15:43:59