Don Rauf

MRI’s changing status as an instrument for breast cancer diagnosis and evaluation was apparent last month at the 2008 American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting. One study suggested that MR’s growing popularity for treatment planning may had led to more mastectomies, and another trial added to growing evidence about its ability to identify metastatic lymph nodes.

Multislice CT angiography should be the preferred choice over MR angiography or duplex ultrasound for initial evaluation of patients with suspected peripheral arterial disease.

No clear winner has emerged in a head-to-head comparison of whole-body FDG-PET/CT and whole-body 3T MRI for non-small cell lung cancer staging. Unenhanced PET/CT proved better for detecting metastatic lymph nodes and soft-tissue involvement, while MR was more sensitive to the presence of brain and liver metastases.

A physiological reason may explain why the shrinking violet in your family is so shy. Using brain SPECT, Dutch researchers have detected irregularities in dopamine and serotonin neurotransmitter systems in the brains of such individuals that appear to be linked to social anxiety disorder, a condition that affects an estimated 15 million adults in the U.S. and frequently leads to alcoholism and depression.

Therapeutic treatment in the very early stages of multiple sclerosis can help patients reduce brain tissue loss and maintain function. Brain atrophy is a common symptom in the relapsing-remitting form of the disease.

Though whole-body PET/CT is expensive, it may prove its worth by periodically screening Li-Fraumeni syndrome patients for the emergence of various cancers that are characteristic of the rare and dangerous genetic disorder.

Treating the hot flashes, mood swings, and other symptoms of menopause with hormone therapy combining estrogen and progesterone compromises the diagnostic performance of mammography, according to a report from the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. Women receiving both hormones had a higher chance of abnormal mammograms and breast biopsies.

Long considered a sentinel factor for Alzheimer’s disease, beta-amyloid proteins can accumulate in the brain in aggregations called senile plaques with amazing speed, affecting neurodegeneration just as readily, according to researchers at Harvard Medical School.

U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq with mild traumatic brain injuries may benefit from preliminary research suggesting that diffusion tensor imaging can identify patients most likely to face long-term cognitive and behavior problems.

They may not get slammed like professional wrestlers, but radiologists commonly experience injuries related to repetitive strain. A study from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston found repetitive stress symptoms to be highly prevalent among radiologists.

The competition is fierce on the way to Wimbledon-just how fierce has been elucidated by British researchers who found a significant number of spinal abnormalities in otherwise healthy adolescent tennis players.

Healthy adolescent tennis players looking to turn professional may be unaware of the damage they're doing to their spines. Using MR scans, researchers at the Royal National Orthopedic Hospital in Middlesex, U.K., discovered a variety of spinal abnormalities in the lower backs of elite tennis players aged 16 to 23.

In one of the most comprehensive studies ever to examine medical imaging self-referral of privately insured patients, researchers found that physicians who refer patients to themselves or members of their own specialty for diagnostic imaging order imaging more frequently than physicians who refer patients to radiologists for imaging.

While the sting of most scorpions is nonlethal to humans, it's not usually considered health-enhancing either. But the venom could actually prove lifesaving.

For nearly a decade, radiologists have used breast ultrasound as an adjunct to x-ray mammography to avoid unnecessary biopsies in equivocal cancer cases. Now ultrasound innovations that increase image resolution while decreasing operator dependence are reflected in a study published in the July issue of Radiology.

With a click of a mouse, referring physicians in selected states can get an instant evaluation of imaging centers competing for their business. OptiNet, a new web-based tool, lets physicians quickly compare quality and cost of imaging services at centers and hospitals within 30 miles of a patient’s address. It assigns a letter grade for each modality offered, along with an average cost per exam.

Healthy adolescent tennis players looking to go pro may be unaware of the damage they’re doing to their spines. Using MR scans, researchers at the Royal National Orthopedic Hospital in Middlesex, U.K., discovered a variety of spinal abnormalities in the lower backs of elite tennis players aged 16 to 23.

A bioluminescent tumor probe promises to give surgeons a glistening intraoperative view of the dividing line between cancerous and normal tissue.

For nearly a decade, radiologists have used breast ultrasound as an adjunct to x-ray mammography to avoid unnecessary biopsies in equivocal cancer cases. Now ultrasound innovations that increase image resolution while decreasing operator dependence are reflected in a study published in the July issue of Radiology.

Dr. Susan Bookheimer and colleagues at the University of California, Los Angeles have confirmed through functional MRI that levels of brain function are low or nonexistent in autistic patients viewing stimuli designed to provoke emotional activity, according to studies presented at the 2007 International Meeting for Autism Research.

Functional MR scans have confirmed that levels of brain function are low or nonexistent in autistic patients viewing stimuli designed to provoke emotional activity, according to studies presented at the International Meeting for Autism Research held in early May in Seattle.

Using a new approach to treat liver malignancies, researchers at Heinrich-Heine-University in Dusseldorf, Germany, have demonstrated that adult bone marrow stem cells accelerate the regeneration of healthy liver tissue in humans.

MRI has proven to be a reliable, fast, noninvasive means for assessing deep fat in adults. Now new research from the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine, in St. Louis supports MRI’s effectiveness in measuring intra-abdominal fat in pre-adolescents and adolescents.

CONTEXT: Fluorescence molecular tomography (FMT) is a powerful near-infrared modality that produces 3D quantitative images of fluorochrome distribution in live small animals. Bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) has been used clinically to induce bone and cartilage formation.

CONTEXT: Building on established methods for CT virtual colonoscopy, Dr. Jamey Weichert, an associate professor of radiology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and colleagues tested a method for colonic tumor detection and characterization using PET/CT imaging.

CONTEXT: Combining proton MR spectroscopic imaging, sodium MR, and PET/CT imaging may be an effective multimodality approach for detecting early response to chemotherapy in breast cancer patients, according to Dr. Michael Jacobs, a radiologist at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.