Focal cryoablation can kill malignant prostate tissue without affecting the urinary system or a man’s sexual potency, according to a study presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology meeting.

The growth of cardiac imaging represents perhaps the heaviest impact of CT on diagnostic imaging. Hospital information technology infrastructures are the first to feel the weight.

Planar’s Dashboard hits the roadMedical displays are proliferating, appearing not just in radiology but in far-flung corners of hospitals and physician offices. To help PACS administrators manage those displays, Planar has developed the Dome Dashboard software console. This console, which is now commercially available, simplifies the centralized management, monitoring, and control of medical imaging displays. Dashboard alerts administrators when a display slips out of alignment, such as a change in the white level or drop in DICOM calibration conformance.

It’s funny how words lend themselves to different meanings. Change the spelling and the word “aisle” becomes its homonym, “I’ll.” Change a letter or two and being unseemly (fat) becomes appealing (phat).

Shared PET Imaging is making an offer many in the imaging community are finding hard to refuse.

Siemens plans to commercially launch a new member of its Sonoline “G” family of ultrasound scanners by early May. The G40 entry-level color system will primarily target physician offices and community hospitals in the U.S. The niche will expand in Europe and Asia to include midsized hospitals.

So far this year, the regulatory agency has cleared 53 radiological devices, 18 more than the number cleared in the first two months of 2004. Last year’s performance is significant in that the FDA cleared more devices (349) than in any year since SCAN began keeping records of FDA clearances in 2000.

Agfa Healthcare used the European Congress of Radiology as a forum to announce plans to merge its corporate culture and technologies with newly acquired IT specialist GWI. In business meetings punctuated by an offsite champagne reception, Agfa executives described the consolidation, barely two months old, as a decisive step in its transformation into a global healthcare IT company.

A U.K. government-led effort to wire 150 English hospitals into the digital age was promoted as one of the biggest PACS efforts in the world. But 10 months after announcements of five successful tender offers to vendors for their PACS, two key contracts have yet to be signed. Questions have arisen about whether the installation of these PACS will deliver the kind of cost savings the project promised.

More than 90% of patients undergoing radiofrequency ablation for primary and secondary lung cancer could outlive their treatment for two years or longer, provided that they don’t succumb to other causes, according to a study presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology meeting in New Orleans.

Five-year data released at the Society of Interventional Radiology meeting show that uterine artery embolization has a 73% success rate for treating uterine fibroids. Supporters hope the finding will increase the popularity of the procedure as an alternative to myomectomy or hysterectomy.

Dr. Harry Genant, emeritus professor of radiology at the University of California, San Francisco and a pioneer in the development of bone density measurement, spoke with Diagnostic Imaging about the increasing availability of bone densitometry tests and the need to standardize vertebral fracture measurement to improve the accuracy of osteoporosis diagnosis as well as patient compliance with therapy.

Opinions differ on how much the signal-to-noise ratio actually improves at 3T MR imaging. Body imagers may not obtain the theoretical doubling they had hoped for, because of inhomogeneities across the field-of-view. Nonetheless, many musculoskeletal radiologists are finding that the improved signal from 3T generates substantially clearer images (Figure 1), particularly on small-FOV scans. They also claim that these highly detailed views are likely to improve patient management.

Many patients have been scanned using Hitachi-made CT scanners, but most didn't know it, at least in the U.S. For many years, Hitachi CT scanners, considered among the most reliable of any used in North America, were sold under the Philips label. Hitachi was pushed out of this marketplace about five years ago, when Philips bought Marconi Medical and no longer needed Hitachi-supplied scanners. Now Hitachi is coming back to the U.S. under its own name.

Exposing a fetus to ionizing radiation is never a good idea, but it may be necessary to diagnose potentially life-threatening gastrointestinal and genitourinary conditions during a pregnancy.

Despite dire predictions regarding the flood of data coming from 16-slice CT scans, radiologists for the most part have kept pace. Routing these exams, however, can be maddening, particularly whole-body scans of trauma patients.

Although radiologists recognize ultrasound's value for the evaluation and diagnosis of musculoskeletal conditions, most prefer to use MR imaging in their daily practice, according to a recent survey.

Specialists such as rheumatologists, physiatrists, sports medicine physicians, and orthopedic surgeons increasingly use ultrasound in their clinical practices. But most radiologists find reassurance in their firm grip on musculoskeletal MR imaging. A number of them fear, however, that in forfeiting musculoskeletal ultrasound they risk losing musculoskeletal imaging altogether.

We've known for some time that abdominal aortic aneurysm screening has great potential to save lives among our growing middle-aged and elderly populations. The Society for Interventional Radiology, which added ultrasound AAA screening to its Legs For Life program in 2000, reported last year that it has screened nearly 46,000 individuals and that the results prompted 11% of them to have a medical procedure or see their doctor. Ultrasound has a sensitivity of 95% and a specificity of 100% in detecting AAA.

Aviation headphone technology adapted for use in the MR suite can cut the decibel level in half, according to a poster at the RSNA meeting.