Today in most countries of the world almost 50 % of patients in hospital for a cardiac condition began their treatment as emergency cases: chest pain at home . . . a cardiac arrest in the street. Thus, according to Dr Peter Clemmensen, of the 22 million hospital admissions in Europe each year for acute cardiac events, more than 10 million of them would have begun as an emergency and without…
Digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) is a promising new technology that acquires 3-dimensional images of the breast. The individual images are presented as thin high-resolution slices that can be displayed individually or in a dynamic cine mode. Preliminary studies in a clinical setting have demonstrated that this new technology has the potential to improve not only the detection of breast cancers…
Developed in partnership with international cardiologists, Medison reports that its EKO7 Cardiovascular Ultrasound system is a dedicated Cardiovascular Ultrasound system ‘…with 2-D Image Quality that you would expect from a premium class ultrasound system. As a matter of fact, the same applies to the colour Doppler, Pulsed Wave Doppler and CWD. So the EKO7 has excellent image quality, a…
Late in 2009, GE Healthcare’s 64 slice PET/CT Discovery 690 began its use in the University Clinic for Nuclear Medicine in Innsbruck, Austria. Apart from routine clinical examinations for treatment control via FDG (fluorodeoxyglucose), the scanner is also employed in clinical research - particularly for Gallium 68DOTA PET/CT examination.
Standard mammography is the most relevant diagnostic tool to address breast cancer: It shows excellent image quality, a smooth workflow, high connectivity and a very good clinical outcome in terms of sensitivity and specificity. However, there are certain shortcomings to it, especially in dense breast tissue.
Radiologist Dr Karl-Friedrich Schünemann works in a group* practice in the small German city of Paderborn. Focusing on sports injuries and using MRI, CT and X-ray, the specialist medical team provides services such as neuroradiology, orthopaedics and CT-guided pain therapy. ‘The fact that we count a number of professional athletes among our clients also attracts many amateur athletes who…
Invited by Dr Mahdi Rezai, medical director of the breast centre at Luisen Hospital in Düsseldorf, Germany, and founder of the European Academy of Senology, some 1,400 international specialists attended the 8th Düsseldorf Breast Cancer Conference this June where leading experts evaluated new imaging methods.
During his Honorary Lecture at the 8th Düsseldorf Breast Cancer Conference in Germany world renowned surgeon and oncologist Prof. Veronesi reflected about the prevention and treatment of breast cancer.
White nights in St Petersburg draw in not only romantics, but June in this beautiful city also sees thousands of delegates arrive to attend the many scientific conferences and congresses. Among oncologists, the ‘white nights’ period means another annual scientific conference organised by the NN Petrov Research Institute of Oncology. For its continuing focus on breast cancer, the halls are…
The Italian firm Internazionale Medico Scientifica (IMS) produces highly innovative mammography units under the brand name Giotto. More than 3,500 Giotto systems are now in use in 38 countries, mostly in Europe, America, China and the Far East. Reason enough for European Hospital to visit IMS in Pontecchio Marconi, Bologna.
Innovative technologies such as elastography, shearwave and 3-D have been cause for euphoria in today’s ultrasound world. The most recent development in breast imaging also has the potential to revolutionise this field, because the Automated Volume Breast Scanner (ABVS) is allowing user-independent and reproducible image acquisition for the first time.
Drug-eluting stents to treat narrowed coronary vessels met with sensational success, and then things became rather quiet. Now, two new developments from Cordis and Biotronik are being tested at Essen University Hospital, Germany. We asked Professor Holger Eggebrecht, head of the hospital’s cardiac catheter lab, why these new models look important.
No white lab coats anywhere; instead men in hard hats, equipped with hammers and drills. The Düsseldorf University Hospital’s Cardiology Pneumology and Angiology Clinic is a construction site, but once the workmen have packed up their tools and removed the scaffolding the view to the human heart will be unobstructed and clearer than ever before. Here, innovative patient care and a highly…
Ongoing technical developments in computed tomography (CT) such as dual source CT have established coronary CT angiography (cCTA) as a robust non-invasive imaging test for the assessment of coronary artery disease. The most important advantage of cCTA over conventional catheter-based coronary angiography is that not only the coronary lumen but also the entire coronary artery wall is visualized…
New imaging technologies are opening a new chapter in interventional cardiology by offering something this widely practiced procedure has been missing -- vivid clinical evidence to assess effectiveness. Interventional cardiology has moved rapidly from opening blocked arteries by crushing plaque with inflatable balloons to reinforcing the walls of the re-opened arteries with flexible metal stents…
The focus on Coronary artery disease – from genes to outcomes at ESC 2010 underlines the importance of CAD diagnosis on the scientific agenda. During the session ‘Multi modality imaging to detect coronary artery disease’, chaired by Professor JJ Bax, of the Cardiology Department at Leiden University Medical Centre, the Netherlands, experts will discuss, for example, the advantages of the…
To make today’s cardiac CT examinations even safer, Toshiba introduces new, revolutionary “Adaptive Iterative Dose Reduction (AIDR)” technology that lowers the radiation dose to the patient by up to 75% compared to conventional scanners.
At ESC, Siemens presents a new image processing software that helps cardiologists and cardiac surgeons prepare and perform transcatheter aortic valve implantations (TAVI): Syngo Aortic ValveGuide automatically reconstructs a 3D representation of the aortic root from CT-like cross-sectional images acquired with the angiography system.
Agfa HealthCare, a leading provider of diagnostic imaging and healthcare IT solutions, announces today that it has signed an agreement with TomTec, active in the sector of echocardiography image analysis, reporting and data management, for the integration of its Image-Arena solution into the company's IMPAX Cardiovascular Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS). TomTec offers a wide…
Standard mammography is the most relevant diagnostic tool to address breast cancer: It shows excellent image quality, a smooth workflow, high connectivity and a very good clinical outcome in terms of sensitivity and specificity. However, there are certain shortcomings to it, especially in dense breast tissue. Over the last 12 years, technical and clinical research is done with contrast-enhanced…
Italian surgeon and oncologist Prof. Dr. Umberto Veronesi, Founder and Scientific Director of the European Institute of Oncology in Milan and former National Health Minister (2000 – 2001), is considered to be one of the biggest authorities on breast cancer research of our time. Many breakthrough changings in cancer medicine sustainably go back on his researches, which once earned him also a…
Not only is heart failure one of the single biggest causes of morbidity and mortality in man, but the incidence of the condition is steadily increasing. Rising to this challenge, innovative medical diagnostic techniques with ever greater performance are constantly being introduced so that early, unambiguous detection of the underlying condition is now possible, enabling the prompt initiation of…
In Switzerland, they say, the clocks tick a little slower than elsewhere in the world. Not at Schiller AG in Baar, however: The company remains forever ahead of the times. Since 1971, physicist Alfred E Schiller, the company’s founder and managing director, has successfully shown competitors in the tough intensive and emergency care market what innovative progress really means.
The Swedish IT and medical-technology company Sectra has been awarded a contract to install four MicroDose Mammography units for use in Victoria. The Sectra MicroDose units offer improved or identical image quality at a lower radiation dose than other solutions in the market.
Biopsy developed into an invaluable diagnostic tool in many organ systems. Advanced imaging technologies have helped shift biopsy techniques away from more invasive approaches toward imaging-guided percutaneous or through the skin techniques, according to a new study appearing online and in the September print edition of the journal Radiology.
