Working with colleagues at the former CTI PET Systems in Knoxville, Siemens Medical Solutions engineers in Erlangen, Germany, are assembling a prototype PET/MR scanner designed to overcome technical barriers that have thus far kept a hybrid of these two modalities from clinical use.

GE enhances ProdigyBone densitometry isn’t just for adults any more. GE Healthcare has enhanced its Prodigy bone mineral density system to support pediatric applications. New tools evaluate the pediatric skeleton relative to a child’s body size and skeletal age, as well as chronological age comparison. The upgrade was unveiled at the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research meeting in Nashville Sept. 23 to 27.

The surge in FDA clearances that typically occurs in the months preceding the RSNA meeting may have gotten off to an early start. Manufacturers earned clearances for 35 devices from the FDA in August, the highest total of the year and at least a 50% jump over the months from March through July.

The FDA wants to alter how PET radiopharmaceuticals are regulated, though the proposed changes may not take effect until 2008.

GE may be the biggest name in PACS, but the company has struggled in the broader market, addressing healthcare IT with a string of departmental solutions rather than an integrated enterprise approach. This will change, however, if GE succeeds in its $1.2 billion cash bid to acquire IDX Systems.

Journal articles this month include a comparison of anesthesia required for RFA versus cryoablation and a new method to protect adjacent tissues from thermal injury.

Radiofrequency ablation is generally a very safe procedure, but complications can occur. The best way to minimize complications is to have a good grasp of the risks involved with different procedure types and to practice sensible patient care protocols.

E-mail for communication is yesterday’s news. Blogging, a buzzword in media and Internet circles, has come to digital imaging.

Today's log at the imaging center shows 15 patients scheduled for different examinations. Most come with abdominal or musculoskeletal symptoms, and almost half of them are overweight. The daytime sonographer called in sick earlier, so the radiologist needs to make a tough call: Does she perform 15 ultrasound exams herself or does she shuttle everyone through to any of the CT or MR scanners available?

The Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise initiative has released a series of new guidelines that should help secure its role in the move toward electronic health records. Medical information technology is tackling a growing list of issues related to this effort, according to a panel presentation at CARS 2005.

CT colonography performed on a 64-slice scanner produces superior image quality and lesion delineation compared with examinations performed on a 16-slice machine. The newer technology's faster scan time also reduces motion artifacts, according to a scientific exhibit at the European Society of Gastrointestinal and Abdominal Radiology meeting in Italy in May.

Near-paperless communication and streamlined workflow have made same-day reporting a central part of routine practice at Vejle County Hospital in Denmark.

Hysterectomy and myomectomy still dominate the uterine fibroid treatment options. But specialists, including gynecologists, are gradually gravitating toward minimally invasive alternatives. The pace for change may quicken when definitive long-term outcomes on uterine artery embolization are published later this year.

Many organizations fancy themselves and their annual meetings a haven for innovators. The Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery gathering is no exception. In an interview with Diagnostic Imaging, and later in his opening address at the CARS annual meeting in June, founder Dr. Heinz Lemke said the organization's future will embody a focus on innovation in medical imaging and informatics that crosses departmental boundaries.

State-of-the-art digital imaging services are being prescribed to treat a crisis of overcrowding in the nation's emergency departments. The need for speed is a driving factor.

Chest CTs are rich with more data than meet the eye. R2's ImageChecker CT Lung Version 2.0 CAD system, armed with its AutoPoint temporal comparison algorithm, highlights abnormalities, then compares new and past images to demonstrate changes that have occurred over time.

Enterprise-wide integration has become the driving force behind many healthcare IT projects, and planners should be sure to include the operating room in their digital workflow schemes. This was the consensus among participants in a joint CARS/International Society for Optical Engineering workshop on surgical PACS and the digital operating room. Imaging often plays an important role in surgical planning, intraoperative navigation, and postsurgical assessment. But digital communication between radiology and surgery is effectively nonexistent, said Prof. Heinz Lemke, a professor of computer sciences at the Technical University of Berlin.

Researchers at the Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich found that CT colonography performed on a 64-slice scanner produced superior image quality and lesion delineation compared with exams performed on a 16-slice machine. Additionally, they concluded that the short calculation time of a prototype computer-aided detection system makes its use feasible in screening.

Growth in imaging volume is often attributed to growth in patient volume. But the new capabilities that result from upgrades to imaging modalities, especially CT, can be an even greater factor, according to researchers at the University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands.

Developed by radiologist Dr. Taro Takahara and colleagues at Tokai University School of Medicine in Japan, diffusion-weighted whole-body MR imaging with background body signal suppression (DWIBS) paves the way for practical whole-body 3D MR diffusion imaging. A new STIR-EPI sequence, performed with SENSE parallel processing, permits long acquisition times during free breathing to boost contrast resolution and overcome fat saturation problems.