CT colonography can pinpoint cancerous colorectal segments more accurately than colonoscopy, according to Italian investigators. They say virtual, not optical, colonoscopy should be the gold standard for the preoperative staging of colorectal cancer.

Powerful political sources are lining up with radiologists and mammographers against guidelines from a federal panel that scrap longstanding policies for the timing of screening mammography. Even the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is distancing itself from its panel’s recommendations in the wake of criticism from many women’s health advocates and breast cancer survivors.

Cardiac CTA has matched the clinical safety of a standard emergency room protocol for triaging chest pain patients with suspected myocardial infarction while cutting costs by more than a third in a multicenter randomized clinical trial involving more than 700 patients.

In addition to possible death and myocardial damage, acute heart attack patients routinely accept the additional risk of cardiovascular imaging exposing them to ionizing radiation, according to research presented Nov. 16 at the 2009 American Heart Association meeting in Orlando, FL.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has issued a recommendation against routine breast cancer screening for women ages 40 to 49 and suggests the screening interval should be changed from every year to every two years beginning at age 50. The new recommendations will result in “many needless deaths,” said a joint statement from the American College of Radiology and the Society of Breast Imaging

Using CT, Korean researchers have been able to accurately locate and diagnose damage produced in the lungs of patients who have accidentally swallowed fuel while siphoning it from car tanks.

Medical imagers can now expect Medicare to routinely cover FDG-PET for initial staging of cervical cancer, thanks to a national coverage ruling announced Nov. 10.

A radiologist, well known for research on diagnostic imaging utilization trends, has pointed to the growing prominence of radiology benefit management companies for slamming the brakes on rapidly growing high-tech imaging utilization.

African American women take longer to come in for follow-up care after a suspicious breast abnormality is found, according to a study from the University of South Carolina. The problem may have more to do with economics than race, according to a physician with extensive clinical experience with this unique patient population.

Passing of the Affordable Health Care for America Act in the House of Representatives confirmed imaging proponents’ fears that the bill would impose steep cuts to Medicare reimbursement rates and new sale taxes on imaging equipment. But they were pleased to discover that, for the first time, the House has turned its gaze on physician self-referral.