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.
There are several reasons why turf battles for imaging occur: 1) Medical imaging has become essential for the diagnosis, treatment planning and patient follow-up. 2) Interventional radiology provides efficient procedures that are a credible alternative to surgery, challenging the surgeons who want to survive. 3) Radiologists are currently facing an explosion of the demands and, paradoxically at…
Rapid advances in medicine and technology have led to a change in the job description for radiologists. With image acquisition and evaluation increasingly carried out by machines, there is a need to find new fields of activity. However, the required rethink is happening far slower than the pace of development in science and technology, believes radiologist and healthcare management expert…
The earlier cancers can be detected, the better the chances of a cure. Researchers are now working to develop a new diagnostics platform with which the illness can be diagnosed in its early stages, even during a visit to the general practitioner: protein biomarkers in exhaled air divulge the presence of pathological cells in the lung.
Siemens has incorporated three further healthcare products into its environmental portfolio: The Somatom Definition Flash computer tomograph, the Axiom Luminos dRF fluoroscopy system and the Ysio X-ray system have successfully completed both internal evaluation and an external audit. Backing up their clinical performance and energy efficiency, the devices present a convincing case thanks to their…
This one-day symposium will expose the Europe and Israeli research communities to the latest advanced technologies that provide temporal and spatial information on cell fate from the living organism. This event is open to anyone interested, please feel welcome to attend! Registration is mandatory. Participation is free of charge.
Breast cancer screening programmes are helping to reduce the mortality rates of women by finding cancer in its early stages when it is easier to treat. Sweden was one of the first countries in the world to introduce a screening program after succesful clinical trials in the 1980s. However x-ray radiation is also a risk factor for inducing breast cancer, meaning that a low radiation dose is…
Royal Philips Electronics is announcing CE marking for the industry’s first commercially available whole body PET/MR imaging system, the Ingenuity TF PET/MR*. This new system, being launched as the first new Philips modality in ten years, integrates the molecular imaging capabilities of PET with the superior soft tissue contrast of MR to image disease cells as they proliferate in soft tissue.…
Imaging is an indispensable tool in modern medicine, yet very few patients know just how important it is. From cancer detection and therapy to diagnosing stroke or serious trauma in time, radiologists contribute to saving lives by covering every field of medicine. To raise public awareness, the European Society of Radiology will launch the 1st European Day of Radiology on February 10, in memory…
Around 18,472 angioplasty procedures and 4,752 stent procedures were completed in Germany in 2008. By comparison, only 7,710 angioplasty procedures and 438 stent procedures were completed in the same year in the UK.
At the Austria Centre, Vienna, the next European Congress of Radiology (ECR) from 3 - 7 March will again provide an expert-led programme, trade fair and range of unique peripheral services, and the European Society of Radiology (ESR) annual meeting will also present top radiological science, education and technology.
Until now, interventional and endoscopic therapies have held little importance in common cancer treatment. However, given the trend towards personalised medicine and targeted cancer therapy, increasing attention is being paid to reasonable complements to traditional cancer surgery.
"One size fits all" – the phrase is a fact of life in terms of the drugs available to treat cancer patients today. This solution can bear tragic results. Only 25% of cancer patients currently respond to this ‘one size’ drugs administration. In addition, 100,000 patients die annually, in the USA alone, from the side effects of those drugs. Personalised therapies that are devised to suit…
The trend towards personalised medicine implies the development of targeted cancer therapy. Tissue based examinations by pathologists play a key role in this trend. However, the relevance is still underestimated as pathologist Professor Manfred Dietel noted in his lecture at the European Forum on Oncology 2010 in Berlin, which explained what pathology already actually renders to targeted cancer…
November saw the opening of the private Avicenna Clinic in Berlin, a clinical "gem" set in the heart of Berlin, not far from the famous Kurfürstendamm. This spinal hospital is also the first in Europe to have installed the AIRIS Vento LT, Hitachi Medical Systems’ latest generation of open MRI systems in its AIRIS Series.
Necessity is the mother of invention, an old saying but particularly true in interventional radiology. Whenever minimally invasive procedures need monitoring from different angles and by different modalities, physicians and technicians in angio labs muster all their DIY skills and build huge monitor towers often with eight screens. Now, however, the new Large Display jointly developed by Siemens…
Hologic announced the signing of an exclusive partnership agreement with SuperSonic Imagine, S.A., an innovative producer of diagnostic ultrasound technology. Under the terms of the agreement, Hologic will sell, install and service SuperSonic Imagine's Aixplorer ultrasound technology platform to the breast care community in the United States.
It started with a bright new idea: full colour ultrasound delivered in a portable scanner. Each year since this first product launch, Sonoscape has continued to introduce new ultrasound systems, expanding its product line and growing sales by double digits. Can this relative newcomer in European ultrasound continue to report such strong performance?
