It is remarkable that until recently sonographic studies of the bowel have not reached the diagnostic level that sonography has attained for other parts of the gastrointestinal tract. Gas posed the major ob stacle to obtaining consistent quality results. Julien Puylaert has de veloped a graded-compression technique which is not only able to eliminate gas artifacts, but also - by reducing the distance between the transducer and the bowel - allows the use of high-frequency transducers. Since 1986, when we were barned by his innovative pa per on sonographic evaluation of acute appendicitis, he...