CT

Nearly half of all patients whose hearts are scanned with CT may get a shocking surprise: a diagnosis of a serious problem that has nothing to do with the heart, according to a study presented today at the American Roentgen Ray Society meeting.

Heart rate and CT density at the aortic root significantly affect image quality in coronary CT angiography, according to a study presented at the European Congress of Radiology.

The pace of FDA clearances slowed in March for the second consecutive month and the fourth in a row that the number has failed to break 30.

Over the past three weeks, Philips Medical Systems has been talking up its vision for the future of cardiac CT. In five cities -- Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, and Ft. Lauderdale -- on dates ranging from April 19 to May 5, Philips has presented the clinical benefits of diagnostic cardiovascular CT. Feature presentations were made by clinicians from Wisconsin Heart, Washington Hospital Center, the Healthcare Clinic of Arkansas, and Lake Cardiology.

The quest for energy, homeland security, and soaring budget deficits are taking their toll on other federally funded programs, and one of the victims could be nuclear medicine research. As detailed in the article on page 13 by Senior Editor James Brice, the Bush administration's budget proposal calls for cuts of $43 million in clinical nuclear medicine research, reducing expenditures to $13.7 million. That's still a hefty amount of money, but several groups-the Society of Nuclear Medicine, the American College of Nuclear Physicians, and the American College of Radiology-are worried enough about the consequences that they have mounted a lobbying effort to stop the budget cuts.

I feel obligated to respond to the article in your March 2005 issue, "All clinical sides take hard look at PET and PET/CT" by Halliday et al (page 47). The article overlooks perhaps the most important team member needed to "ensure seamless integration of PET imaging within the hospital system." If the perspective of the nuclear medicine technologist is not taken into account, there will be no success for this venture.

A large multicenter trial of CT colonography has started collecting patients and some criticism among advocates who say it may undercut the procedure and produce not much more than is known already.

The nuclear medicine community is fighting proposed federal budget cuts that would end most Department of Energy support for basic nuclear medical research.

Radiologists should not only take their patients' history but perhaps also record their future travel plans. Apparently, individuals undergoing diagnostic or therapeutic nuclear medicine procedures can trip radiation detectors designed to catch terrorists smuggling radioactive material.

In a move that points to anticipated growth, Xoran Technologies has cut a deal with Varian Medical Systems to receive flat-panel x-ray detectors. Varian will supply its PaxScan amorphous silicon flat-panel detector for use with Xoran’s MiniCAT CT scanner. The product was developed for use by ear, nose, and throat specialists.

This week, the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, CA, will open an exhibition featuring six mummies, each one thousands of years old. Their lives and deaths will be annotated, in part, with information gathered using a 16-slice CT scanner.

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.

Barco is stepping up efforts to make soft-copy solutions a vital tool in gastrointestinal exams. U.S. regulatory authorities this month cleared the company’s colonography software application for distribution to the potentially sizable screening market.

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).

Boosted by the introduction of multislice machines, CT has been steadily overtaking other imaging modalities in visualizing the chest. CT is far more specific than chest radiography and faster and more global than nuclear medicine scanning. Although MR imaging is more sensitive to differences in fat and soft-tissue contrast and provides more precise demarcations of tissue planes, it doesn't return much signal from pulmonary parenchyma.

The Society of Nuclear Medicine recently added the tagline "advancing molecular imaging" to its logo. Now it has developed a center of molecular imaging to disseminate information and promote research in the rapidly advancing field.

The American College of Radiology Imaging Network has begun enrollment nationwide for its national CT colonography trial. The study should resolve ongoing debate over the efficacy of virtual colonoscopy for cancer screening.

It’s a shame, but GE Healthcare is the only imaging company doing direct-to-consumer marketing. There should be more of it.

Orex joins KodakThe acquisition of computed radiography manufacturer Orex is complete. Eastman Kodak paid $51.3 million in cash for the maker of specialty CR systems. The final price may yet be adjusted, depending on a final audit. With the deal now final, Orex becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Kodak, joining Kodak’s Health Group, though it will continue to operate out of Yokneam, Israel. The company’s small-format CR products address market niches involving orthopedics, imaging centers, and dentistry. Orex CRs, as well as some from Kodak, are also used by industrial nondestructive testing groups, such as pipeline companies, foundries, and aerospace manufacturers.

Nuclear medicine physicians should take not only a patient’s history, but also his or her “future.” Patients who travel after a diagnostic or therapeutic nuclear medicine procedure can accidentally trip alarms designed to catch terrorists smuggling radioactive material.

Hitachi is hoping for a comeback in the world’s premier market for CT. The company, which for many years supplied CT scanners under the Philips Medical System label, has launched its own brand, the quadslice CXR4. It is the first in what will become a family of products with varying capabilities, extending ultimately to the highest levels of performance.

The majority of patients who undergo CT colonography, either with or without contrast, will produce studies that have at least one extracolonic anomaly. Most will not require further workup, however.

Precise evaluation of cardiac and thoracic anatomy is mandatory for planning safe minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass. Three-D images obtained with CT angiography can help avoid surgical complications, minimize the need to switch to the standard surgical approach, and help determine the best surgical access.

The majority of patients who undergo CT colonography, either with or without contrast, will produce studies that have at least one extracolonic anomaly. Most will not require further workup, however.

Radiation exposure has been a dicey issue for researchers developing multislice CT coronary artery imaging. According to critics, MSCT exposes patients to twice as much ionizing radiation as conventional cardiac catheterization.

Mercury Computer Systems has emerged from the shadows of medical imaging with a portfolio of advanced processing products and services. The company, which previously served mostly as a supplier of 2D imaging components to major OEMs, has begun shopping 3D and 4D products around the imaging industry. These products vary from software only to software-hardware combinations and are designed to perform critical functions in diagnostic and interventional products, as well as PACS.

A study of whole-body MR and CT as possible alternatives to planar nuclear medicine bone scanning has found that whole-body MRI depicts spinal bone metastases that escape detection with 16-slice CT.

Nuclear medicine physicians have suspected since the advent of PET/CT that the hybrid technology would outperform PET or CT for staging cancer. Those suspicions were confirmed Tuesday by a study of 260 patients at the University of Essen, Germany, which showed that PET/CT is substantially more accurate for staging carcinoma than PET or CT alone and PET and CT viewed side by side.

Precise evaluation of cardiac and thoracic anatomy is mandatory for planning safe minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass. Three-D images obtained with CT angiography can help avoid surgical complications, minimize the need to switch to the standard surgical approach, and help determine the best surgical access.