With public health issues continuing to make daily mainstream news headlines across the world, it is clear how much change the healthcare environment is going through. Not only are there existing pressures on resources, space, staff, certain procedures, and budgets, but there are brand new ones resulting from the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic. This has led to an even greater need for…
In order to detect the Corona virus SARS-CoV-2, there are further methods of diagnosis apart from the globally used PCR tests (Polymerase chain reaction): The infection can also be recognised on CT scans – for which Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be used as well. An AI system can not only filter CT scan of Covid-19 patients from a data set, but also estimate, which areas of the image are of…
The Belgian initiative icovid, which supports radiologists in the assessment of CT images of the lungs of COVID-19 patients, has grown into a multicentre European project, co-funded by the EU Horizon 2020 programme. Icovid was set up in March by UZ Brussel, KU Leuven, icometrix and ETRO, an imec research group of VUB.
A new advanced computing technique using routine medical scans to enable doctors to take fewer, more accurate tumour biopsies, has been developed by cancer researchers at the University of Cambridge. This is an important step towards precision tissue sampling for cancer patients to help select the best treatment. In future the technique could even replace clinical biopsies with ‘virtual…
Displaying medical images from different modalities such as CT, CR/DR, MR, ultrasound or mammography and pathology on one monitor - that is what most radiologists want. Many of them still use several medical displays next to each other. JVCKenwood's new CL-S1200 30.9-inch colour monitor makes this a thing of the past. The 12 megapixel device (4,200 horizontal and 2,800 vertical) can display…
Covid-19 causes characteristic changes in lung tissue visible in CT scans and chest radiographs, known as “ground-glass” opacities. Imaging is now considered a valid alternative, possibly even superior to RT-PCR. ‘This sparked an international debate about the role of CT in the diagnostic work-up of Covid-19,’ said radiologist Professor Cornelia Schäfer-Prokop.
RSNA 2020: International experts showcased new studies on chest CT’s role in Covid-19 diagnosis and treatment. A staggering volume of work and has been produced on the pandemic this year, with an average 367 Covid-19 journal articles published per week, according to Michael Chung, Assistant professor of radiology at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NYC.
A recent preprint study in France underpins the debate on whether lung ultrasound (LUS) should be used to triage COVID-19 patients better at the hospital as well as in primary care. The eChoVid study, published as a preliminary report of work on medTrix, shows that LUS enables identification of lung lesions as well as chest CT in COVID-19 patients. A team of French researchers compared routinely…
Researchers at the University of Notre Dame are developing a new technique using artificial intelligence (AI) that would improve CT screening to more quickly identify patients with the coronavirus. The new technique will reduce the burden on the radiologists tasked with screening each image. Testing challenges have led to an influx of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 requiring CT scans which…
Rapid first aid during cardiac arrest makes the difference between life and death. But what happens to the heart and the internal organs when people come running and begin to give well-meaning but heavy-handed heart massage as they attempt to keep the person who has suffered a cardiac arrest alive? A research collaboration between the Department of Forensic Medicine at Aarhus University and the…
Injuries in the nervous system of patients with severe COVID-19 are revealed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT). In a study of 185 patients, researchers at Karolinska Institutet (KI) and Karolinska University Hospital show an affection of microscopic blood vessels and inflammation in the brain, meninges and nerves. The results are published in Radiology.
Researchers have designed a fluid that works like a luminous ink to obtain very sharp images of damaged tissues, organs and cartilages in diagnostic tests. This new compound, still in the laboratory phase, reduces adverse effects on the human body because it allows lower amounts to be injected and the dose to be targeted only at the affected area.
CT has a critical role to play in management of mass casualty incidents with the ability to image patients from head to toe, offering a rapid overview for clinicians. The benefits of CT will be outlined by Dr Elizabeth Dick during an ECR session examining the role of radiology in the management of mass casualty incidents, terror attacks and assaults. “Mass casualty incidents – whether…
The complex form of machine learning DLIR (Deep Learning Image Reconstruction) is based on a deep neuronal network which is similar to the human brain. The artificial neurons of this network learn according to their biological model through intensive training. For the DLIR image reconstruction, the network is fed with sample data from phantom images on the one hand and high-resolution images of…
Computed tomography (CT) is one of the most important imaging options for the diagnostics of patients. For a long time, in clinical routine CT technology mostly showed the Hounsfield Units (HU) that are indicated in the grayscale. However, the Dual Energy CT (DECT) enables colored X-ray images, therefore significantly improving examination methods. “We can also do material separation and get a…
Researchers at the University of Zurich have developed a new X-ray contrast agent which is easier to use and distributes into all blood vessels more reliably, increasing the precision of vascular imaging. This reduces the number of animals required in research experiments. Various diseases in humans and animals – such as tumors, strokes or chronic kidney disease – damage the blood vessels.…
The organ of balance in the inner ear is surrounded by the hardest bone in the body. Using synchrotron X-rays, researchers at Uppsala University have discovered a drainage system that may be assumed to play a major role in the onset of Ménière's disease, a common and troublesome disorder. These results are published in the journal Scientific Reports. Ménière's disease is manifested in sudden…
Machine learning and AI are highly unstable in medical image reconstruction, and may lead to false positives and false negatives, a new study suggests. A team of researchers, led by the University of Cambridge and Simon Fraser University, designed a series of tests for medical image reconstruction algorithms based on AI and deep learning, and found that these techniques result in myriad…
Computed tomography (CT) is one of the most effective medical tests for analysing the effects of many illnesses, including COVID-19, on the lungs. An international team led by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) has developed a new method that improves the quality of the images obtained from CT scans. The algorithm, which has been tested on simulated data, enables them to distinguish…
