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.
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.
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…
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
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…
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.
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.
Computed tomography (CT) is emerging as an imaging modality set to play an important role in cardiac intervention or surgery. Not only can it be used to plan complex revascularisation procedures and assess the outcome for the patient, but also might help to identify the more dangerous lesions -- so-called ‘culprits’ -- in the future.
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…
This March, Dräger Medical will bring to the bedside of respiratory patients an innovative new monitor that vividly shows, breath-by-breath, their response to treatment. After shifting a patient’s position, or adjusting the respirator setting, or delivering a drug to open airways, physicians and nurses will be able to watch in real-time the response inside the patient’s lungs.
Based in Silicon Valley, CA, NDS Surgical Imaging (NDSsi) is the global leader in designing and manufacturing medical imaging and informatics systems. NDSsi technology solutions have led the way in re-defining the modern surgical OR, radiology rooms, endoscopy suites and minimally invasive environments.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.
'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.
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…
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…
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…
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.
"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…
