RSNA

Video! Diagnostic Imaging's Greg Freiherr interviews representatives of the major vendors exhibiting at this year's meeting.

When the gatekeepers clear the way to the exhibit halls at McCormick Place, Canon USA will be out with its CXDI-70C Wireless Digital Radiography System, but it won’t be alone. A gaggle of vendors, including Carestream and Fuji, will be showing portable x-ray detectors as well.

The need for increased efficiency will continue to ripple across radiology, as it has since the start of the great recession, leading the community to seek better and lower cost ways to manage patients. This year, as in years past, this need will be satisfied in large part by offerings in information technology.

Protocols that get the most from every x-ray and high-tech algorithms that delete noise will drive CT at this year’s show.

MR vendors will show advanced technologies in traditional-and nontraditional-realms at the RSNA meeting.

The technological and political evolution of digital mammography will be in evidence on the RSNA exhibit floor.

Agfa Healthcare extended its computed radiography portfolio with the global launch at RSNA 2009 of a compact, high-volume reader. Agfa also raised expectations among customers in the market for digital radiography systems with the unveiling of two works-in-progress built around flat-panel detectors.

It’s been argued that repeat/reject analysis, a quality-assurance tool to observe trends and make improvements that help reduce the need for repeat images, is not necessary when using digital equipment. While it is true that digital imaging reduces some error rates, the results on the Mayo Clinic digital poster exhibit at the RSNA meeting showed that mistakes still occur in the digital environment.

Interest in computed and digital radiography was booming among vendors at RSNA 2009, as traditional providers of turnkey systems and components showed portfolios designed to appeal to cost-conscious buyers.

New offerings shown at RSNA 2009 by the makers of digital mammography equipment reflected a new reality in the U.S. market, one based on cost constraints and diminishing demand. Vendors emphasized low-cost solutions that guard against obsolescence at the expense of premium ones, a change spurred by the continuing recession in the U.S. and an installed base increasingly saturated with high-end full-field digital mammography systems.

Korean researchers tested the ability of radiologists to spot CT images altered with commercially available software to introduce pathology and found that their ability to do so is no more certain than a coin flip.

Interventional radiologists should refrain from performing either kyphoplasty or vertebroplasty unless the procedure, intended mostly for the management of pain from vertebral compression fractures, is done in the context of clinical trials.

Standard nuclear scintigraphy of parathyroid cancer produces enough false positives for patients with multigland disease to lead researchers to recommend rapid intraoperative parathyroid hormone assay along with preoperative technetium-99m sestamibi imaging to assure that all lesions have been removed.

Knee osteoarthritis progression can be predicted by MRI findings of medial collateral ligament edema, bone marrow lesions, and being female, according to a study presented at the RSNA meeting Thursday morning.

Toshiba laid the groundwork for entering the 3T marketplace in the U.S. with the unveiling of its Vantage Titan 3T system at RSNA 2009. The work-in-progress, which is pending FDA clearance, leapfrogs earlier generations of 3T scanners with a 71-cm tapered aperture and Pianissimo noise reduction technology.

Endocrinologists are biting into radiology’s control over the management of nuclear imaging procedures involving an administration of radioiodine.

GE Healthcare announced at RSNA 2009 an effort to develop the next generation of software designed to cut patient x-ray dose from CT.

New software shown by Siemens at the RSNA meeting promises to cut patient exposure to x-rays by as much as 60% for a wide range of CT applications.

Over the last several months, Philips has been dropping hints that the company would unveil at RSNA 2009 a high-powered technique for cutting CT dose. The company did not disappoint.

The brains of 16 retired National Football League players with known cognitive impairment show signs of damaging atrophy, according to advanced MRI studies described Wednesday at the 2009 RSNA annual meeting.

McKesson is showcasing its latest image management technology on the RSNA exhibit floor, a workflow enhancement called Variable Thickness Regional Intensity Projection (VTRIP), which promises more efficient reading of CT and MR studies.

Increasing CT scanning speeds and image resolution combined with automated injection and optimized protocols tailored to specific patient features could reduce iodinated contrast media needed for coronary CT angiography by at least half, according to several papers presented at the 2009 RSNA meeting.

In an ironic twist for radiology, effective imaging of skin cancers has just been accomplished by none other than the imaging modality in closest contact with the skin: ultrasound.

An MR contrast agent for blood pool imaging once known as Vasovist reappeared at RSNA 2009 under the new moniker Ablavar.

IT products ready for market and ones nearing commercial release punctuated the Merge Healthcare booth at the RSNA meeting.

Thinking Systems is showcasing its upgraded ThinkingPACS and ThinkingRIS at RSNA 2009, focusing on enhancements that support multimodality processing, especially for molecular imaging.

At RSNA 2009, Agfa HealthCare executives highlighted opportunities that could come from a pending deal to acquire a German developer and producer of generic contrast media.

A high-field, wide-bore MR scanner from GE Healthcare is making its first appearance at an RSNA meeting. The system, called Optima MR450w, was officially unveiled some three months ago, but RSNA 2009 is its first major trade show.

A preliminary study suggests that CTA can play the role cardiac MRI has been playing for detecting and quantifying myocardial infarction to estimate the potential success of coronary bypass graft surgery.

RSNA newbie Real-Time Tomography launched at this year’s meeting a new image processing and enhancement software library for digital mammography. But the product, dubbed Adara, will not be sold to providers, at least not directly. Real-Time Tomography came to Chicago with hopes of attracting original equipment manufacturers to its library.