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…
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…
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…
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…
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.
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…
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…
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.
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.
A new competitively priced scanner promises to make 3-tesla MRI more accessible to a wider range of institutions, according to Siemens Healthcare.
The world’s first gene cancer therapy study of an innovative oral vaccine is underway at the Surgical Clinic of Heidelberg University Hospital.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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…
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: Although an area of constant debate, this is becoming a widely accepted clinical modality in Europe. However, researchers in The Netherlands have shown that performing pre-operative breast MRI in all women with invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) can reduce the need for re-excision.
When scanning seizures, Dr Walter Kucharczyk, director of MRI at Toronto General Hospital, believes that MRI still remains the best imaging test to discover if there is an anatomic or structural abnormality that might account for a seizure.
During the RSNA 2011, Professor Uwe J Schoepf MD, was asked what will be the chosen procedure of the future in cardiac imaging, he answered without hesitation: ‘Definitely CT,’ and, the Director of Cardiovascular Imaging at the Medical University Charleston, South Carolina.
Education and science are not the only exciting aspects of the European Congress of Radiology; the Vienna venue is also a stage on which companies can introduce novel concepts in medical imaging. Following one product’s world premiere during the RSNA 2011 in Chicago, the Echelon Oval 1.5-T MR system is now debuting before a European audience at the ECR 2012.
Cardiovascular surgeon Dr Miodrag Todorovic explains how an island hospital – which is a medical centre of excellence and regional reference centre – is further improving medical care for patients there and in six neighbouring states with the help of a new picture archiving system from Visus
About two years ago iterative image reconstruction was officially introduced for CT imaging. Since then, no other technological innovation has raised more hope that the dose of X-ray based, cross sectional imaging can be significantly lowered. The possibilities of this procedure have not yet been exhausted.
Much has changed for medical device manufacturers. Take scanner development; whereas the aim has long been to increase multi-slices, produce higher field strengths and sharper images, optimise the ergonomics and then launch the new product at a specific group of customers, in recent years this approach became insufficient.
Medical imaging is no longer limited to diagnosis and evaluation. New, high resolution imaging systems enable very precise positioning of lasers, endoscopes and micro-instruments for surgery near the nerves, spinal cord or blood vessels and for selective tumour destruction, with minimum levels of pain and low complication rates.
