Philips Medical Systems has introduced at ECR a motorized radiography system featuring battery technology that promises all-day scanning without recharging.

Siemens Medical Solutions has introduced at ECR a lightweight, mobile C-arm designed as an adjunct for cardiac and abdominal interventions. The Arcadis Avantic features a 20-kW generator with a continuous digital 1K by 1K image chain and a 13-inch image intensifier. The imaging chain can deliver 30 frames per second.

When Dr. Peter Kullnig offered patients at his imaging center in Graz, Austria access to their images, his intent was to protect their privacy. With private logins to the center’s Web-based PACS, patients controlled access to their records. They could open those records to their own physicians and doctors to whom they were referred.

Directives to decrease radiation exposure have galvanized researchers in Belgium to start a multicenter study to assess patient doses in interventional radiology. The data could lead to future auditing parameters.

Cedara is unveiling this week a CAD system designed for ultrasound. The Canadian software developer is exhibiting the new technology at the European Congress of Radiology in Vienna as part of an extensive offering of PACS tools addressing orthopedic planning, digital mammography screening, 3D, multislice CT, and PET/CT. The ECR is the first major exhibit of Cedara’s technologies since the company announced Jan. 18 its planned acquisition by Merge Technologies.

Although fundamental research in biomedical imaging remains a relatively obscure field, some observers believe the future of radiology depends largely on developments in this area.

Residual questions about vertebroplasty’s safety and efficacy were put to rest in Vienna Saturday. Dr. Giovanni C. Anselmetti, medical director of the Interventional Radiology Service of Candiolo, Italy, announced results at the ECR meeting of a seven-center trial covering 1580 vertebroplasty patients.

The ECR hosted the unveiling of Philips’ latest high-performance ultrasound system, the HD (High Definition) 11. The company launched the system commercially in mid-February as a state-of-the-art alternative for budget-strapped healthcare facilities.

Researchers need more data to better define technique's value in various tumors and patients

European interventionalists are confident about placing stents in patients who present with either acute or chronic thoracic lesions. They are wary, however, at the lack of long-term data about the procedure’s efficacy.

Radiologists are increasingly turning to personal digital assistants, but mostly for data handling. That may change as research confirms the possibility of interpreting scans from the wireless devices.

Siemens calls it z-Sharp. A competitor calls it z-Wobble. The names are ammunition in the battle for market share, underscoring the intensity of the fight more than they illuminate the technology.

Since early adopters began purchasing PACS in the 1990s, the technology has come of age. Those first systems, in many cases, have simply aged. While first-time buyers still make up the bulk of PACS sales, vendors expect a growing market for upgrade and replacement sales.

Provided cost-effectiveness issues can be resolved, whole-body imaging appears destined to enter everyday clinical practice as a comprehensive initial scanning method in oncology and other areas, according to an ECR presentation Friday.

While exploration of Mars and Saturn accounts for most of the news from outer space these days, astronauts aboard the International Space Station have quietly published the results of a shoulder ultrasound exam performed in zero gravity.

The catheter sliced through the weakened wall of an intracranial blood vessel, a not-uncommon complication during the treatment of shallow aneurysms. Interventionalists at Methodist Hospital in Houston quickly documented the result: ventricles swelling with blood from the hemorrhage. Neurosurgeons relieved the pressure with a ventriculostomy that shunted the blood from the ventricles, allowing the interventionalists to finish treating the aneurysm and stop the bleeding.

MR mammography benefits from the reputation of its cornerstone modality's ability to detect soft-tissue abnormalities, particularly cancer. And it presents the opportunity for patients to avoid the discomfort of breast compression.

Interventional radiologists can now see liver tumors freeze in real-time on MR imaging as they perform thermal ablation, according to a study presented at the 2004 RSNA meeting.

Organized radiology has struggled in recent years with consumer-driven imaging exams that are not supported by valid research. The most controversial are whole-body CT and MR screening, lung cancer CT screening, and coronary calcium screening.

Dr. Jonathan Elion is a cardiologist, computer scientist, and cofounder and chief medical officer of Heartlab, a company that develops systems for the digital management of cardiology reports and data sets. The former director of the cardiac image processing laboratory at the University of Kentucky, he has been involved in cardiac image processing since 1983.