Mega-MRI
Pushing the power of scanners creates new world for imaging, but whilst high-field magnets bring new capabilities they also pose new challenges for clinicians. John Brosky reports
Imaging
The 10th United Kingdom Radiology Congress
Delegates at the UKRC 2011 will examine who should deliver 21st century imaging services in the UK, when the relationship between radiologists and radiographers will be the focus of a keynote debate. The session ‘This house believes that radiologists have given up enough of their professional role to radiographers’ will also see delegates vote on this issue.
Tele-echocardiography identifies healthy though aged donor hearts
A Pisa-based team has established the Adonhers (Aged Donor Heart Rescue by Stress Echo) protocol and is using second-opinion stress tele-echocardiography to assess the condition of the heart from older donors. A key aspect of this was to raise the donor cut-off age limit from 55 to 65 years, where the stress echo screening on the candidate donor showed as normal.
Think thin, go big
To meet the high demands of today’s radiological environment, a PACS must provide far more than archiving, controlling and distribution of electronic data. Post processing and upgradable network structuring capabilities are just as important to guarantee efficient workflow. The Visage Thin Client looks like a smart solution indeed.
Contrast-induced nephropathy
Contrast induced nephropathy (CIN) is widely recognised as a potentially serious complication of contrast media use -- a risk that increases with a patient’s age and decreased renal function. Mark Nicholls reports
How low can the dose be?
Michael Maher, Professor of Radiology at the University Collage, Cork, Ireland, produced an answer to during a GE Healthcare Lunch Symposium at the European Congress of Radiology this March. It is 1.2 millisievert – at least for abdominal CT scans of Crohn’s disease patients.
Contrast enhanced tumour studies
Medical imaging has recently advanced so rapidly that it should halt. Applying more power to computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners is becoming too dangerous for patients and healthcare workers. Magnets for the next-generation MRIs are so powerful that they must be moved to a separate building on hospital campuses, while CT radiation levels have risen to alarming…
Bayer to Present Data on Oncology Pipeline
Bayer HealthCare announced that the company will present preclinical data that introduce investigational compounds for both therapy and imaging in its early oncology pipeline with unique and novel mechanisms at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 102nd Annual Meeting, April 2-6, 2011, in Orlando, FL.
EIBIR Summer School on Imaging in Neurology
After the success of the EIBIR Winter School in 2010 (Viladrau/ES), the next course will take place in August 2011 in Dubrovnik. This time the focus will be on neuro-imaging. A particular ENCITE Lecture will be held during the school.
ESTI 2011
Penetrating insights, intensive discussions and an informal atmosphere – these are the hallmarks that make the European Society of Thoracic Imaging (ESTI) so special, according to Professor Hans- Ulrich Kauczor, Medical Director of the Department of Diagnostic Radiology at the University Hospital Heidelberg and this year’s ESTI meeting President. In 2011 ESTI’s American (USA) ‘cousin’,…
Mammography or MRI: what will breast imaging look like in the not so distant future?
Mammography is the most widely used modality for early detection of breast cancer, the leading cause of cancer death in women worldwide. But its limitations, such as the high number of false positives it creates, have led researchers to focus on different strategies to characterize breast carcinomas more accurately, such as tomography, MRI and molecular imaging. In a new horizons session today at…
Trans-rectal quantitative Shear Wave Elastrography
Prostate cancer is the 2nd leading cause of cancer death in men. It is also the most common diagnosed malignancy in men with near 190.000 new cases in the USA in 2008. Despite the larger use of biological tests (such as prostate specific antigen (PSA)) and imaging modalities (trans-rectal ultrasonography (TRUS) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)), there is a slight increase in the annual death…
ContextVision introduces new mammography and interventional radiology solutions at ECR 2011
ContextVision, the software imaging partner for the most recognized medical imaging manufacturers worldwide, today introduced two innovative solutions at the 2011 European Congress of Radiology (ECR). A mammography solution addresses current limitations of x-ray image diagnosis for the detection of breast cancer, while the interventional radiology solution helps achieve superior, real-time images…
ECR 2011 prelude
Vienna - For the 23rd time, the European Congress of Radiology (ECR) is opening its doors to welcome 19,000 participants from over 90 countries. The scientific exchange of knowledge and the presentation of the latest developments in the field of radiology will again be presented right in the heart of Europea. In an inaugural press conference on March 3rd, the hot topics of the congress were…
ECR 2011 - Cutting to the chase and priming radiologists to become clinicians
A major gathering of medical specialists presents not only a perfect time to summarise the status-quo but also to assess the role of the specialty in the future. This year’s European Society of Radiology Congress aims to reach far into radiological horizons by launching attendees into a radiological setting in the year 2025. ECR 2011 will also enter the 5th dimension of CT.
What do women know about early detection of breast cancer?
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in Europe: each year 350,000 new cases are diagnosed and each year about 130,000 women die of the disease. At the same time breast cancer is one of the few cancer types with encouraging healing prospects – if detected early.
Watching the lungs work
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
Old technology in new outfit
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.
Imaging is undergoing massive changes
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.
PET-MRI - The right system at the right time
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…
ShearWave Elastography enters new applications and medical fields
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.
MRI: Still the best tool for seizures
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…
Imaging and stroke
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.
Sectra - Confident and able to count on its photon counting technology
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…
Giotto - The Italian route towards digital breast tomosynthesis
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.
