RSNA

If it’s round, has a hole in it, and isn’t a bagel or donut in the break room, chances are it’s a CD brought into the practice by a patient. According to Dr. Bradley Erickson from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, the use of compact discs to transfer diagnostic imaging data has seen a steady increase over the past decade.

Despite challenges, ultrasound remains useful in obese trauma patients. Using the lowest frequency ultrasound probe along with tissue harmonic imaging improves image quality, according to an education exhibit presented at RSNA 2009.

A collaborative project backed by the National Cancer Institute, the cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG) is serving as an umpire and scorekeeper of medical imaging research by setting the rules for assuring the validity of multicenter research and formatting results for easy tabulation and sharing.

A system that required physicians, rather than support staff, to approve low-utility imaging exams was able to cut their incidence by more than half, according to a study from Massachusetts General Hospital reported Sunday at the 2009 RSNA meeting.

Rather than retreating after the hard blow handed them by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which refused to grant reimbursement for the application in May, CT colonography researchers will arrive at the 2009 RSNA meeting with more of what CMS wants: hard data.

Developers of CT scanners have been trying to adapt their technology to breast imaging for decades. They have drawn a step closer, thanks to the efforts of researchers at the University of California, Davis. Their efforts may lead to the ability to not only visualize but treat breast cancer.

Medication errors may arise less often in a busy hospital radiology department than in other inpatient services, but they can cause more serious damage when they do happen. Radiologists at Boston-based Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center came to these conclusions after evaluating 27 months of high-tech medical imaging experience. They used their data to identify the causes of errors and devise strategies to address them.

Dose reduction will be among Siemens’ key messages at the RSNA meeting this year. Driving home this message will be IRIS (iterative reconstruction in image space), a proprietary algorithm that processes raw data acquired by CTs, according to André Hartung, Siemens vice president, CT Marketing and Sales.

With years of slice wars behind them, vendors will argue that image quality and dose reduction are this year’s dominant issues in CT. Most of their arguments will be rooted in past developments.

Simple strategies, based on past experience with contrast-enhanced MRI for patients with compromised renal function, have helped radiologists and allied physicians bring the incidence of nephrogenic systemic fibrosis, a rare but deadly skin disorder, under control.

Researchers from Austria, Italy, and Egypt are taking a leap of faith to evaluate several possible ultrasound elastography applications in musculoskeletal radiology. Everyone from weekend warriors to elite athletes may benefit if the test is proven effective, according to papers released at the 2008 RSNA meeting.

Cruising one of the vendor booths at the RSNA meeting, my eye skipped from the exhibit in front of me to the paper tablet cradled in the arm of the media handler who accompanied me. There, nestled in a matrix of times, contacts, and booth locations, was my picture. Beside it appeared my title and the day and time I was to show up.

Educational efforts to raise awareness about the associated risks of CT-based radiation exposure and the need to keep children from receiving unnecessary scans seem to be achieving traction among healthcare providers, according to a study by Ohio researchers. Their findings suggest that such increased awareness may make referring physicians less likely to order imaging that involves ionizing radiation for young patients.

Educational efforts to raise awareness about the associated risks of CT-based radiation exposure and the need to keep children from receiving unnecessary scans seem to be achieving traction among healthcare providers, according to a study by Ohio researchers. Their findings suggest that such increased awareness may make referring physicians less likely to order imaging that involves ionizing radiation for young patients.

Educational efforts to raise awareness about the associated risks of CT-based radiation exposure and the need to keep children from receiving unnecessary scans seem to be achieving traction among healthcare providers, according to a study by Ohio researchers. Their findings suggest that such increased awareness may make referring physicians less likely to order imaging that involves ionizing radiation for young patients.