RSNA

Nuclear medicine specialist Numa showed at the 2006 RSNA meeting enhancements for NumaLink, a cross-vendor data translation product, and NumaStore, a gamma camera and PET/CT image management system. The products promise greater connectivity within the nuclear medicine department and between nuclear medicine and radiology. Among NumaLink’s enhancements are DICOM translation capabilities for proprietary PET data sets, including those generated using Siemens and GE PET systems. The NumaStore upgrade supports Siemens’ preclinical microPET and the Inveon Dedicated PET small-animal imaging systems.

If you want to boost your chances of scooping up a coveted Magna Cum Laude (MCL) award at future RSNA meetings, you should submit an education exhibit in the multisystem/special interest category. That’s the conclusion many people will draw after two of the six top prizes went to presenters in this category, which attracted only 63 posters. Both winners hail from Asia.

The timing and place were perfect to let a larger audience hear what ultrasound insiders knew all along: Contrast-enhanced sonography could boost targeted biopsy’s power to detect prostate cancer and do away with the need for sextant or saturation-type biopsies, according to a study presented Tuesday at the RSNA meeting.

A virtual reality system unveiled this week allows neurosurgeons to walk through planned interventions step by step and radiologists, other specialists, and educators to discuss specific cases.

A natural gas leak in the western addition under construction at Chicago’s McCormick Place snarled traffic Thursday morning as city fire and police officers halted access to the popular north and south building of the massive complex.

Neurostar Solutions introduced at the 2006 RSNA meeting enhancements, including an expert opinion consulting service, a portal enabling online sign up, and the means to customize configurations of its Virtual Radiology Network (VRN).

Two major providers of teleradiology services, NightHawk and Virtual Radiologic, offered to sell the secrets of their success at the RSNA meeting this week. The companies unveiled on the exhibit floor productivity tools and resources developed for in-house use and made them available for sale to other providers.

Merge eMed and its subsidiary Cedara Software have each launched a major product at the RSNA, both designed to enhance workflow productivity.

For reasons unbeknownst to me, I attended the annual oration in radiation oncology today, something that I have never done. The talk, “Looking beyond anatomy-based treatment in radiation oncology” by Dr. Theodore Lawrence, was thankfully short on radiation physics. It was an interesting assessment of where rad-onc is and where it is going. Lawrence noted with irony that after 30 years of separation between radiation oncology and diagnostic radiology, the two fields are merging as functional imaging grows.

If I were offered the opportunity to rename the educational exhibit hall, I would call it the Lakeside Incubator. Its shiny new name, Lakeside Learning Center, is appropriate, but really, the entirety of McCormick Place becomes a learning center when it is occupied by the RSNA’s attendees and vendor community.

Researchers may agree that cardiac MR is the modality of choice for predicting left ventricular remodeling, but they are split on which contrast-enhanced CMR technique produces the most accurate prediction, as the conclusions of studies presented at the RSNA meeting show.

Full-field digital mammography yields higher cancer detection and recall rates than conventional mammography, based on large European studies involving thousands of women. Study findings were presented at the RSNA meeting Tuesday.

U.S. radiologists face more of a threat from advances in computer-aided diagnosis than from foreign radiologists who perform interpretations at reduced rates, according to a speaker at the RSNA meeting on Tuesday.

The swift rise of percutaneous ablative interventions represents one example of the power of innovation -- crushing barriers that stand between discovery and adoption into routine medical practice.

Medical display sales and marketing firm U.S. Electronics introduced at the 2006 RSNA meeting two medical-grade high-luminance monochrome LCDs.

Sony Electronics demonstrated its next-generation FilmStation dry film imager at the RSNA meeting. The second tray of the dual-tray UP-DF550 model supports 8 x 10-inch, 10 x 12-inch, and 11 x 14-inch film sizes, in addition to traditional 14 x 17-inch films.

The growing worldwide popularity of soccer means that more radiologists are encountering injuries. Understanding the biomechanics of each injury, particularly in the ankle, enables them to make a more accurate diagnosis and recommend the most appropriate treatment, according to an educational exhibit presented at the RSNA meeting.

Cryotherapy is often portrayed as radiofrequency ablation’s little brother. But the thermal ablation technique is muscling in on malignancies in several organ systems, according to studies presented Tuesday at the RSNA meeting.

Radiologists must embrace cardiac imaging, especially coronary CT angiography, but many are hesitant if not reluctant to do so, according to Dr. Kerry M. Link, a professor of radiology, cardiology, regenerative medicine, and biomedical engineering at Wake Forest University Health Science Center.

Radiology information systems firm RIS Concepts introduced a Web-based radiology group workflow application tailored for radiology groups reading studies for multiple facilities.

Move over MRI and ultrasonography: 64-slice CT is staking a claim in assessment of tumor extent in patients with locally advanced breast cancer ahead of conservation surgery.

Automated whole-breast ultrasound (ABUS) helps find additional lesions in the screening setting and its performance in diagnostic studies alongside mammography is roughly equal to handheld ultrasound, according to studies presented on Wednesday at the RSNA meeting.

Software designed by researchers at the University of Chicago helps detect interval changes in successive nuclear medicine bone scans, and can reduce interpretation time by up to 32%, according to research presented in an educational exhibit at the RSNA meeting.

A disparate group of hospitals in Maine has been sharing a PACS for five years, achieving the same results as newer systems with advanced technologies such as XDS, according to a presentation at the RSNA meeting.

Radiologists perform most diagnostic and minimally invasive interventional musculoskeletal studies in the U.S., with some areas experiencing continuous growth. Data released Wednesday at the RSNA meeting, however, suggest future turf battles between radiologists and surgeons are lurking on the horizon.

GE Healthcare introduced at the 2006 RSNA meeting an upgraded version of its flagship CT scanner with software that cuts patient x-ray dose for cardiac scans by 70% or more. The 64-slice LightSpeed VCT XT uses a technique called SnapShot Pulse to change the scanner mode from conventional helical acquisition to step-and-shoot.

Computer-aided detection and colon dissection display software can improve the efficacy of CT colonography, but usefulness of both tool depends on the radiologist’s experience and preferred method of reading.

Canadian and U.S. radiologists may face different regulatory restrictions when it comes to use of ultrasound contrast, but both agree on one thing: the agents have a positive effect on clinical practice, according to studies presented at the RSNA meeting on Monday.

If you have been to RSNA in the last five years, you know that McCormick Place comprises three large convention buildings and that the meeting fills all three. Lectures and meetings are held in all three, with commercial exhibits in the north and south buildings and scientific exhibits confined to the East Lake building. Today I never left the East Lake building.

Studies presented at the RSNA meeting suggest that the promise of dual-source CT will be fulfilled by a big boost in temporal resolution and a corresponding increase in its sensitivity to coronary artery disease.