CT

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Big-ticket items are suffering this year as reimbursement cuts resulting from the Deficit Reduction Act have had a wider and longer lasting effect than initially expected. Particularly hard hit has been PET/CT. The hybrid juggernaut had defied the odds for several years, marching forward with ever higher sales despite utilization rates at individual sites that allowed plenty of unused capacity.

The growing field of molecular imaging is helping nuclear medicine physicians identify pathways into personalized patient care. This overall assessment informed Dr. Henry Wagner's 30th annual highlights lecture at the 2007 Society of Nuclear Medicine meeting held in June in Washington, DC. Neuroimaging seems set to become the next new thing.

Rapid technological developments, in terms of both instrumentation and radiopharmaceuticals, are making nuclear medicine an increasingly relevant part of daily clinical practice, according to Prof. Peter Ell, director of the Institute of Nuclear Medicine at University College London.&qu

Radiologist interest in whole-body diffusion-weighted MRI for cancer applications is intensifying following preliminary studies that demonstrate its potential value for staging cancer. Whole-body DWI produces a composite image using a STIR echo-planar diffusion-weighted technique with a high b-value for background suppression.

Using special software to fuse myocardial perfusion SPECT and CT angiography data acquired on separate scanners could be a cost-effective alternative for the diagnosis of patients with suspected myocardial disease, according to two studies presented at the 2007 Society of Nuclear Medicine meeting.

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The seeds for what could be a new and much faster way of CT scanning will be planted next week, when researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill unveil an approach involving nanotube x-ray sources and multiplexed data transmission.

The importance of CT protocols that limit patient exposure to radiation became more evident this week with publication of research suggesting that routine screening with coronary CT angiography could pose an increased lifetime risk of cancer.

Radiology and nuclear medicine are the focal points of proposed Medicare reforms that would bundle reimbursement in 2008 for seven categories of ancillary services covered by the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System.

The American College of Cardiology-backed Task Force on Clinical Competence will extend a certification deadline by two years, enabling more physicians to qualify to perform and interpret cardiac CT.

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Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Blue Care Network are partnering with Michigan hospitals to examine whether coronary CT angiography, under certain circumstances, can be used as a complement or replacement for cardiac catheterization.

Current PET/CT scanners wrongly indicate coronary disease in up to 40% of patients, according to a study published this month in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

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MR and CT can be the key to explaining sudden hearing loss. Explanations are most commonly associated with a benign tumor of the acoustic nerve, commonly called an acoustic neuroma but more appropriately described as a vestibular schwannoma. But radiologists may have to look elsewhere to find the answer in patients with a genetic disorder called von Hippel-Lindau disease. Again, however, MR may hold the key.

Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center have developed a shareware nuclear medicine PACS software package that includes a display for fused PET/CT studies. It is freely available on the Internet, according to a web-exclusive article in the June issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology.

Siemens Medical Solutions is installing its dual-source CT in new, uncharted territory -- hospital departments the company has never before approached -- and is finding a welcome reception for the clinically versatile platform.

When the Mayo Clinic’s nuclear medicine PACS grew in complexity to the point that a monitoring program was needed to ensure that technical issues did not degrade performance, nothing satisfactory could be found on the commercial market.

FDG-PET/CT can accurately tell which lung cancer patients will have a successful response to chemotherapy, and therefore a longer survival, and which will not, according to a study in the May issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine. Findings may have important implications for patient management.

Barco has put an interactive twist on the fusion of PET and CT data sets. The company demonstrated software at the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine meeting (June 7 to 10) that allows the user to blend data from CT and PET data sets to varying degrees, creating images that show more or less anatomic and functional data, at the user’s discretion.

NeuroLogica extends CT role in sportsSwissray adds board members

Siemens highlights cardiovascular assessmentAurora expands breast MR operation to AsiaIBA launches headquarters in Beijing Gamma Medica-Ideas unveils high-performance CT

CAD-powered CT colonography enters EuropePhilips notches CT milestoneMultislice CT looks into the pastMR system expands options for breast biopsyHansen robotic catheter system ships to U.S. site

Research published in the June issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine suggests that radiolabeled recombinant tissue plasminogen activator can perform double duty for evaluations of deep vein thrombosis: It can diagnose the presence of DVT and distinguish between new and old thrombi. Peer-reviewed reports in the May medical literature reflect the growing value of medical imaging for diagnosing, assessing, and guiding the treatment of cardiovascular disease.

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Amid a stir created by competitors about high definition at the Society of Nuclear Medicine meeting, Philips Medical Systems quietly promoted what may be the ultimate answer to improved image quality: its proprietary time-of-flight PET/CT. Clinical data supporting the benefit of this approach are now being generated by the company’s Gemini TF (TruFlight, commercially launched in 2006).

After more than a year of toggling with a rebranding process, the Society of Nuclear Medicine is no more. Along with a new face, the SNM acronym and the tagline "Advancing Molecular Imaging and Therapy" are the society's brand name from now on.

Researchers from Germany and the U.S. released findings from the first study showing images of the human brain acquired simultaneously by the two modalities of a hybrid PET/MR scanner. They released the data at the 2007 Society of Nuclear Medicine meeting being held in Washington, DC.