Top billing for cardiac MRI
Today, magnetic resonance imaging receives top billing in cardiology next to the co-star computed tomography while much hailed single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) plays but a minor role.
MRI
MRI brings a new beat to rhythmology
More anatomy details, real-time visualisation of catheter movement, and reduced exposure – MRI has promising potential in rhythmology, explain Professor Matthias Gutberlet and PD Dr Christopher Piorkowski, at the Heart Centre, University Hospital Leipzig, Germany.
CIED patients can have MRI examinations
A new generation of cardiovascular implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) includes the Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD), Cardiac Resynchronisation Therapy Defibrillator (CRT-Ds) and Cardiac Resynchronisation Therapy Pacemakers (CRT-Ps). Professor W R Bauer at University Hospital Würzburg has been significantly involved in their development, EH Editor Ralf Mateblowski to ask him about…
Learning from the deceased
The case-based approach holds considerable promise for medical science. In a way, it’s a return to the roots, since this approach was common at the dawn of modern medicine. A case serves as a narrative that can be explored interactively in order to draw a conclusion, determine a course of action, or debate issues in a realistic context. Spanish cardiac imaging consultant Dr Rafael Vidal Perez,…
Article • The future of radiology
Viewing the lung in 2022
To avoid any misunderstanding, ten years from today CT and MRI will still be the pillars of lung imaging. However, Hans-Ulrich Kauczor, Professor of Radiology and Medical Director of the radiology clinic at Heidelberg University Hospital, is convinced the emphasis will have changed.
Predicting the future of neuroradiological imaging
As this decade ends we’ll be watching the brain think. Although anticipating very important technical developments, Professor Olav Jansen MD (right), President of the German Society for Neuroradiology (DGNR) and Director of the Institute for Neuroradiology at Schlewwig-Hostein University Hospital in Kiel, Germany, foresees even more important crucial advances in stroke therapy
Future radiology infrastructures
When asked about his vision of imaging in the year 2020, Professor Bernd Hamm MD, director of the three radiology clinics at the Charité University Hospital in Berlin, qualified his focus: ‘Technology is always only a vehicle. When we talk about road traffic, we don’t talk about the design of cars but about structural issues’
Breast MRI The (non-)beloved gold standard
Magnetic resonance imaging is a long-established, highquality and safe examination tool. Why, therefore, do German gynaecologists and radiologists question its value in breast cancer diagnoses? Indeed the question ‘Breast MRI - yes or no?’ has split the medical community. One ardent champion of breast MRI is Professor Christiane Kuhl MD, director of the diagnostic and interventional radiology…
The digital broadband MR experience
Ingenia 3.0-T, the digital broadband MR system launched by Philips at RSNA 2010, is today used in almost 200 hospitals worldwide. Eight months after the installation of an Ingenia at Germany’s Bonn University Hospital, the radiology department’s managing physician Dr Winfried A Willinek sums up her experience with this new technology that is increasingly competing with whole body CT and pet-CT…
Against all odds: MRI does well in lung imaging
At first sight magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) does not seem to be particularly well suited for lung diagnostics: too much air, too much movement and too little water make image acquisition a real challenge. Nevertheless, MRI is useful and in certain cases even superior to CT say the members of HTIP (Heidelberg Thorax Imaging Plattform), an association of the radiology departments of the…
Lung screening will come – maybe even with MRI?
After breast screening and prostate screening there is currently a lively discussion around the introduction of a lung cancer screening programme in Europe. Study results from the US appear to back up the supporters of this early detection of cancer for smokers. Prof. Dr Jürgen Biederer, Consultant and head of the Division of Pulmonary Radiology at the Department of Diagnostic and Interventional…
Looking beyond the lungs: don’t forget the cardiac structures!
So close yet so far away! A fitting description of many diagnostic examinations of heart and lungs. Modern imaging modalities allow these two neighbouring organs to be evaluated together, nevertheless it is rarely done.
The future of thoracic imaging
Will MRI become routine modality? Today, thoracic MRI is rarely performed in Europe. But this will change over the next decade, predicts Professor Hans-Ulrich Kauczor, Medical Director of the Radiology Clinic at University Hospital Heidelberg. He expects Germany to be at the forefront of this development because MRI technology, despite the high costs, is already widely used here and because CT…
Shared standards critical in lung cancer screening
Findings from the landmark National Lung screening Trial (NLST) continue to make waves in the United States, and increasingly around the world. The principal investigator for the component of the NLST sponsored by the American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ACRIN), Denise Aberle, MD, said the NLST can provide a road map for public policy regarding lung cancer screening, though she cautions…
MRI scans help to define chemotherapy's effect
Faster assay for targeted chemotherapy's success against deadly liver cancer saves lives, and could speed lifesaving switch to alternative drug therapies for well-known pancreatic cancer.
3-T MRI is now more accessible
A new competitively priced scanner promises to make 3-tesla MRI more accessible to a wider range of institutions, according to Siemens Healthcare.
The vicissitudes of breast screening
The benfit of breast cancer screening for women over aged 50 is beyond doubt. However, what does a systematic search yield for breast cancer in women aged between 40 and 49? This question, which remains controversial, was raised again at ECR 2012.
Oral vaccination against pancreatic tumours
The world’s first gene cancer therapy study of an innovative oral vaccine is underway at the Surgical Clinic of Heidelberg University Hospital.
Imaging pregnant women
Figures suggest that imaging of pregnant women increased by 121% between 1997 and 2008, even though radiologists face several critical challenges when imaging these patients.
RADbook 2012 on your iPad
Quick, simple and comfortable – the RADbook 2012 on your iPad. Download the RADbook app free of charge today and have all state-of-the-art diagnostic imaging systems at your fingertips.
Breakthroughs in musculoskeletal imaging outlined at ECR 2012
The fact that between 60% and 80% of people are expected experience some form of back pain at some point in their lives puts the importance of advances in imaging of the spine into context. A number of developments in imaging of the spine and peripheral nerves were outlined at a musculoskeletal scientific session at ECR 2012 in Vienna on Saturday morning.
Multi-disciplinary team approach offers better breast cancer care
A multi-disciplinary team approach is crucial if healthcare professionals are to offer breast cancer patients the best possible care in the years ahead. That was the opinion voiced by three experts at an ECR 2012 session on Saturday afternoon with delegates addressed by a radiologist, surgeon and an oncologist.
Centralising critical care to save funds
Professor Timothy Evans, a leading intensive care specialist believes regionalising critical care into major centres across England and Wales is an ‘inevitable step’ as the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) seeks to make the best use of resources, Mark Nicholls reports.
MRI will improve the treatment of wake-up strokes
Neurointensivists need to act quickly and carefully – as well as consider later complications or the psychological impact on stroke victims. This potentially debilitating disease was a central discussion among 1,400 participants from 10 countries during the three-day 29th Annual Conference of Neurointensive Medicine (ANIM), an event hosted in January by The German Society for Neuro-Intensive…
