SECure TRAnsmission, the main aim of a spin-off from the Linköping Institute of Technology, was established in 1978. From this beginning, the Swedish firm Sectra has evolved into one of the world’s leading players in PACS and mammography solutions. Although secure communication systems remains a core business, the medical section has constantly grown since 1988, when Dr Torbjörn Kronander…
In 2005, when they founded the French ultrasound company SuperSonic Imagine, Jacques Souquet PhD and Claude Cohen-Bacrie had to convince radiologists that they not only offered a new product but also a completely new ultrasound technology that could measure entirely new parameters.
USA - Although it is well know that the speed of diagnosis and treatment for stroke victims is of paramount importance (4.5 hours), not all US hospitals have stroke expertise. The Joint Commission, the organisation responsible for accrediting US non-government hospitals, has certified only about 500 out of several thousand hospitals as primary stroke centres.
Metabolic syndrome, diabetes and vascular disease: What do we need to know? During ECR session this important question is addressed by vascular specialist Professor Erich Minar, Assistant Head of the Department of Angiology at the Vienna General Hospital (AKH), President of the Austrian Society of Angiology, and scientific researcher working closely with research centres in the USA.
It’s digital mammography taken to the next level – or, so to speak, the next dimension as digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) that provides high resolution 3-D imaging. For about two years this exciting technology has promised to become the magic bullet in the early detection of breast cancer, particularly in the dense breast.
Held near Kobe, Japan, the Joint Meeting of the International Workshop and the Japanese Society of Pulmonary Functional Imaging drew in more than 250 international researchers and clinicians who work at the forefront of pulmonary functional imaging
Computed tomography (CT) is emerging as an imaging modality set to play an important role in cardiac intervention or surgery. Not only can it be used to plan complex revascularisation procedures and assess the outcome for the patient, but also might help to identify the more dangerous lesions -- so-called ‘culprits’ -- in the future.
Although developments in molecular imaging still do not reach the high expectations placed upon them, the change in imaging is very obvious. Having been limited to the imaging of morphology, nowadays information on tissue characteristics, blood vessels or the metabolic behaviour of tumours provide many more insights, for example into response behaviour.
Anti-seizure medication is not successful in all patients, while in others such medication can have side effects. In recent years significant technical advances have delivered better imaging results, which, combined with growing demand for a surgical solution from patients whose medications do not control seizures, or those not wanting to take medication constantly, has led to an increase in…
Thinking of the future of imaging, inevitably PET-MRI springs to mind. The fascination of this novel hybrid technology is great, seeing how it combines the best from three imaging areas: anatomy, function and metabolism. The further development of functional procedures in oncology is raising particularly high expectations. However, how extensive the use of this potentiated image information will…
Looking at the 5th dimension of a CT image is old hat. Back in the 1980s there were many installations with rapid kV switching, a dual energy procedure, which were mainly used for bone density measurements. Basically, the 5th dimension is the ability to determine the atomic number as well as density of materials, which facilitates tissue differentiation even when there is the same attenuation.
The smaller the child, the more defenceless it is against viral and bacterial attacks. That is why infection accompanied by the symptom of a high temperature is the most common illness in children. So, when a child has a runny nose and fever an infection is clear. The more elemental question is: Should it be treated with antibiotics?
Often a life-saving intervention, mechanical ventilation also has some serious drawbacks: the need for sedation, the risk of ventilator associated pneumonia, intubation or tracheostomy related complications. In 1972, Donald Hill from Pacific Medical Centre, Los Angeles, reported the first successful long-term mechanical lung assist device with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO).
This March, Dräger Medical will bring to the bedside of respiratory patients an innovative new monitor that vividly shows, breath-by-breath, their response to treatment. After shifting a patient’s position, or adjusting the respirator setting, or delivering a drug to open airways, physicians and nurses will be able to watch in real-time the response inside the patient’s lungs.
As one of the most advanced forms of precision radiotherapy, proton therapy enables the irradiation of tumours located deep within the body, in the proximity of critical organs, such as the optic nerve or some brain areas. The Institut Curie has renovated its proton therapy centre in Orsay near Paris. Since 1991, when the original centre opened, it has treated over 5,000 patients (4,000 for eye…
Based in Silicon Valley, CA, NDS Surgical Imaging (NDSsi) is the global leader in designing and manufacturing medical imaging and informatics systems. NDSsi technology solutions have led the way in re-defining the modern surgical OR, radiology rooms, endoscopy suites and minimally invasive environments.
Molecular imaging (MI) is reported as an increasingly important diagnostic field for radiologists to focus on. However, molecular imaging should not be considered a new discipline that only adds to today’s clinical practice, or might even replace the traditional, more morphology-oriented diagnosis. Rather, the whole diagnostic concept should be re-considered.
More than doubling over the last 20 years in most EU Member States, obesity has considerable implications for health, health systems and the economy. Over half our adult population is now overweight or obese, according to the joint European Commission and OECD report "Health at a Glance: Europe 2010".
Turfing is a subversive activity based on a variety of economic and prestigious interests. It is opposed to the trend in modern medicine towards harmonisation, ordinate formation and QA processes. Usually, ‘highjacked’ services are characterised by uncontrolled training processes, the absence of an official syllabus, no board exams, a lack of formal (registered) practice supervision and…
A leading radiologist is forecasting a ‘paradigm shift’ in breast imaging. Dr Peter Brader, from Department of Radiology, Division for Molecular and Gender Imaging, Medical University Vienna, envisages that diagnosis and treatment will move from a ‘one size fits all’ approach to one of personalised molecular medicine by 2025. He also foresees greater use of theranostics with combinations…
Molecular Imaging (MI) emerged in the early 21st Century as a discipline at the junction of molecular biology and in vivo imaging to enable the visualisation of the cellular function and the follow-up of the molecular processes in living organisms. Modalities available for MI encompass MRI, CT and ultrasound, PET, as well as Optical Imaging, and are by nature frequently experimental.
Whole-body hybrid PET-MR scanners are emerging on the market and are expected to have a significant impact in diagnostic imaging particularly in oncology applications and also in other clinical domains, such as cardiology, inflammatory and infectious disease, as well as in neurological applications.
Molecular imaging (MI) appears as an unavoidable challenge for the future of imaging, because MI is able to characterise cellular and molecular processes and will serve as a guide for new targeted or personalised therapies. However, MI appears as hype for many radiologists because it is too far from clinical practice. In reality, MI is already part of clinical practice using PET and targeted…
'What can we do about the lack of young radiologists in Europe?’ ECR 2010 congress president Professor Małgorzata Szczerbo-Trojanowska will discuss the background to this shortage and suggest ways to avert this occupational crisis, although pointing out that the problem does not exist in Poland.