Three months after Hurricane Katrina devastated its city, the radiology department at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, School of Medicine at New Orleans passed along valuable lessons about PACS disaster recovery during a Hot Topic presentation Tuesday at the RSNA meeting.

Hyperpolarized helium-3 diffusion MR can detect alveolar changes due to lung disease in children and provide quantitative data on airflow to the peripheral lobes, according to research presented Tuesday.

Trainee radiologists can benefit by studying the mistakes of their predecessors and focusing on clinical situations and radiographic findings that are often misdiagnosed.

Digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) promises to dramatically reduce the rate of false-positive mammograms, potentially sparing women from unnecessary follow-up tests and biopsies, according to a study presented Tuesday.

GE Healthcare launched a new digital radiography line at the RSNA meeting Monday. The first two members of the Definium line are a portable and a fixed digital radiography system.

The computer-aided detection firm R2 Technology has teamed with Swedish workstation leader Sectra to produce a “CAD-intelligent” system that optimizes the presentation of CAD information on mammographic images. The companies jointly launched the Citra mammography applications suite at the RSNA meeting.

As computer-aided detection continues to make inroads into virtual colonoscopy territory, studies presented Tuesday at the RSNA meeting highlighted its potential for spotting polyps.

GE Healthcare joined the ranks of believers in mega-slice PET/CT with the formal release of its Discovery VCT on the RSNA exhibit floor. The 64-slice hybrid, shown as a work in progress at the 2004 meeting, will compete with the Siemens biograph 64 and Philips Gemini GXL, both 64-slice PET/CT scanners launched one year ago.

Philips and Schering are collaborating in breast imaging, using a fluorescent dye developed by Schering and an experimental optical scanner under construction by Philips. The two technologies will be merged as part of a phase I clinical trial that could begin some time next year.

Once again, I spent much of the day in a case-based review course, this one on interventional radiology. In my practice, we have one real interventional radiologist and two pseudo-interventionalists. The prime difference being that a real interventional radiologist knows what he’s doing. The other big difference is an IR enjoys what he is doing.

CT screening of head and neck vascular injuries by emergency departments could lead to more aggressive therapies that result in improved outcomes, according to a pair of papers presented Monday.

Toshiba is introducing the latest improvements to its Aplio and Xario ultrasound systems at the 2005 RSNA meeting. The Aplio system has been enhanced with the company’s exclusive expanded Differential Tissue Harmonic Imaging (DTHI), while the Xario features 4D imaging.

Many radiology departments aren’t waiting for commercial information systems to address pressing needs like automatic work list prioritization. They are developing their own tools for tackling this common problem, according to presentations at a Monday scientific session.

Continuing medical education is a must for radiologists planning to perform CT colonography, according to two studies presented by U.K. researchers at the RSNA meeting on Sunday.

Computed radiography’s new needle-like phosphor imaging plate technology provides comparable diagnostic performance with only half the radiation exposure required by its predecessor, according to a study presented Sunday. Findings suggest the gap between CR and digital radiography is shrinking as well.

High-field 3D MR angiography can put up a good fight against conventional x-ray digital subtraction angiography for the diagnosis of brain aneurysms and other intracranial vascular malformations, according to studies presented at the RSNA meeting Monday. Three-D MRA also provides reliable follow-up after treatment.

Medweb’s Advanced 3D Web PACS widens access to many 3D imaging functions and features previously available only on dedicated 3D workstations. With Medweb’s new product, introduced today at the RSNA meeting, users working on a standard PC can employ 3D templating and autosegmenting of image data from spiral CT scanners.

Agfa HealthCare designed its next-generation PACS, the IMPAX 6.0, to meet the specific workflow requirements of multiple users. Introduced at the RSNA meeting, the IMPAX 6.0 is a Web-deployable application that improves the planning, capture, interpretation, distribution, and archiving of images throughout an enterprise, according to the company.

The latest version of 3viseon software from 3mensio Medical Imaging gives radiologists and referring physicians real-time access to advanced 3D functionalities, such as color and gray-scale volume and slab renderings and MPR/MIPs, on an off-the-shelf PC.

A mammography upgrade to Kodak’s DirectView CR system, shown Sunday at the RSNA meeting, promises to allow hospitals and imaging centers to move toward digital breast imaging on existing computed radiography platforms from Kodak.