Contrast enhanced ultrasound
In the USA, some patients have bled to death while in the CT scanner because this type of examination takes too long for blunt abdominal trauma diagnosis. Report: Chrissanthi Nikolakudi
Contrast agents
Contrast enhanced US expands at POC
Once considered an add-on examination, CEUS expands diagnostic capabilities and is leading to new insights. Where contrast enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) is restricted to radiologists, or performed only by trained technicians, its utilisation has stabilised, taking its place among more established imaging modalities. Report: John Brosky
Contraindications removed
Ultrasound Contrast Agent SonoVue usable in case of recent acute coronary syndrome or clinically unstable ischaemic cardiac disease.
MultiHance launched in Russia
Bracco Imaging, a global leading company in diagnostic imaging announced the launch of MultiHance (active ingredient: adobenate dimeglumine) in Russia.
Three tiny grills deliver high contrast X-rays
Mammography scans with lower dose and higher contrast – that’s the declared goal of Dr Nik Hauser, Medical Director of the Women‘s Clinic and Director of the Interdisciplinary Breast Centre at Kantonsspital Baden, Switzerland, and Professor Marco Stampanoni of Paul Scherrer Institute in Villigen, Switzerland.
Russia: Scanners plentiful but radiologists too scant
However, investments in equipment and advanced training are attracting medical students, John Brosky reports
Compact, comfortable and cost-effective
Toshiba’s new 1.5-T MRI Vantage ELAN system is not only cost-effective, the firm reports, but truly compact; it needs only 23 square metres of space. Yet, the system uses the same type of magnet as other Toshiba products to achieve excellent image quality.
PET/CT-specific radiopharmaceuticals for diagnosis and therapy
The multiple benefits of PET/CT are undisputed – one being the fact that radiopharmaceuticals, which are used at pico and nano levels – are not toxic.
Validating imaging biomarkers
New imaging biomarkers are helping radiology to play a greater role in new drug developments.
Faster scanners, more parameters, better markers…
With MRI and CT scanners widely available in clinical routine, radiologists cull increasingly precise and relevant functional tumour information for diagnostics and monitoring purposes. Both modalities offer technological and methodological approaches, initiated by the discipline itself, that have become indispensable for certain frequent tumours.
Somatom Force opens CT to highly sensitive patients
Somatom Force – the new computer tomograph (CT) from Siemens – recently had its first public presentation worldwide at the University Medical Centre Mannheim, Germany.
The complex science behind microbubbles
At Bracco Suisse SA in Geneva all efforts are dedicated to contrast media for ultrasound scans. During their visit to the firm’s research centre and manufacturing site, Daniela Zimmermann and Ralf Mateblowski met with François Tranquart MD PhD, general manager of the Bracco Suisse research centre, to hear why SonoVue is now Europe’s most popular ultrasound contrast agent, with research…
The ultimate in ultrasound
A joint meeting combining the Euroson and Three Countries congresses creates a veritable European summit on the state-of-the-art in ultrasound
Cardiology drives innovation
‘Cardiology is one of the most innovative medical disciplines. Many modern technologies, such as catheterisations or imaging procedures, were triggered by cardiology,’ declared Professor Dr Gerald Maurer MD.
Art meets science
The future will be aesthetic or, put another way, Art meets Science. With this motto, the 43rd Congress of the German Society for Endoscopy and Imaging Procedures e.V., jointly held in Munich with six other specialist associations, demonstrated that aesthetic means the brilliance of images generated by the latest generation of X-ray, CT, MRI and ultrasound equipment.
Perfusion imaging: The future of CT?
CT scanners now nicely cover morphology. The challenge is moving to CT functional imaging without frying patients
PET/MR: The opportunities are almost unlimited
MRI has become the gold standard for many indications in cardiac imaging, apart from imaging the coronary arteries. For function and morphology assessment, MRI is the leading technology. A further advance into as yet unknown territory is myocardial imaging aided by one of the first integrated 3-Tesla PET/MR systems currently used at the Institute of Radiology, Essen University Hospital,…
Toshiba boosts CT scanning to maximum performance
The new Aquilion ONE ViSION is the widest, fastest, thinnest-slice CT ever built, capable to pushing both anatomical and functional studies to new levels.
Ultrasound-MRI fusion advances prostate therapy
Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of death among men yet remains one of the most frustrating for physicians to find and treat. Merging the strengths of imaging modalities helps, but does not solve all the problems, says John Brosky
Building a clinical case for contrast-enhanced ultrasound
Adding micro-bubbles to the blood lights up the body for ultrasound scanners. Non-invasive, non-toxic and low-cost, these examinations present a disruptive, readily accessible technology for diagnosing disease. John Brosky reports
In their infancy but new PET tracers have a rich future
Dr Peter Choyke, Chief of the Molecular Imaging Programme at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, USA, believes that new tracers will have an evolving role to play and represent an exciting development in the imaging of cancers.
The impact of imaging on personalised cancer medicine
Enormous technical developments over recent decades, along with greater understanding of tumour biology, have made imaging, pathology and laboratory medicine indispensable tools in personalised cancer treatments.
What´s new in ultrasound and contrast agents?
Critical ultrasound, as a tool for immediate therapeutic decisions, and emergency POC ultrasound – an extension of the clinical examination at the bedside or on the accident scene – have shown clear benefits along with lung ultrasound.
Phase-contrast imaging will revolutionise X-rays
This may sound like science fiction, but computed tomography with reduced radiation exposure and the highest soft tissue contrast is likely to be a reality -- very soon. Named phase-contrast imaging, the method is an invention of Professor Franz Pfeiffer, Chair of Biomedical Physics at Munich Technical University, Germany. We asked him to explain the implications this development has for…
Contrast-enhanced ultrasound - the benefits for children
For the paediatric radiologist an ultrasound system is as essential as a wrench for the mechanic, for three reasons, says Professor Michel Claudon, Head of the Department of Radiology at the Children's Hospital of Brabois, University of Nancy, France: ‘High image quality due to the low weight of children, which allows medium frequency, the absence of radiation and the possibility of performing…