MRI

When physicist and inventor Herman Yaggi Carr, Ph.D., died, his survivors remembered him in two ways: First and foremost, as a staunch pacifist and humanist. Second, as the unsung hero of MRI.

Liver imaging is benefiting considerably from the improvement of ultrasound systems and sequences dedicated to contrast-enhanced examinations. The use of ultrasound contrast to detect and characterize focal liver lesions is now routine.

The main objective of imaging patients with symptoms suggestive of ovarian lesions is to distinguish benign findings from malignant disease. Masses can be characterized with a variety of noninvasive imaging techniques, including transabdominal and transvaginal ultrasound, CT, and MRI. Each of these modalities has its advantages and limitations.

Whole-body MRI is more sensitive but less specific than FDG-PET/CT for cancer detection, according to researchers from China and Europe. Findings suggest a complementary rather than exclusive role in oncologic imaging for both modalities and validate recent studies suggesting close follow-up since either test can miss metastases.

The controversial topic of nephrogenic systemic fibrosis featured prominently in this year’s European Congress of Radiology program. This scleroderma-like disorder has been linked to the administration of gadolinium-containing contrast media. Despite the growing wealth of data on incidence of the disorder, however, researchers remain unable to pin down the causal trigger.

An epileptic seizure is the external manifestation of a functional cerebral disorder that can affect 10% of the world's population. Virtually any brain abnormality can irritate vulnerable neurons and produce epileptic seizures. The nature and characteristics of the seizure depend on the part of the brain involved in the disturbance.

Perfusion-weighted MR imaging can anticipate the transformation of low-grade gliomas into malignant tumors up to a year earlier than other imaging tests, according to British researchers. MRI could help determine which patients may benefit more from aggressive treatment.

Researchers in San Francisco have found that MR imaging can accurately predict recurrence and development of metastatic disease in patients who are about to undergo radiation therapy for prostate cancer. Study findings suggest a stronger role for MRI in the management of the condition.

We are already eight years into the New Millennium. The Y2K crisis is a distant memory, and debate about whether the new century actually began in 2000 or 2001 is far behind us.

Hitachi executives hope their booth at the ISMRM meeting will serve as a springboard for sales of their open 1.2T Oasis, set to begin shipping this month. The new high-field scanner is the company’s chance to rekindle a market that has all but collapsed in the past several years with the advent of compact wide-bore 1.5T devices and expanding clinical applications for such high-performance systems.

Above and around the Siemens Healthcare booth at the ISMRM meeting, the message “pushing the boundaries of MR” was as clear as it could be. The theme was driven home by pennants featuring iconic reconstructions of athletes into whole-body 2D renditions of muscles and organs. How the company pushes these boundaries, however, had been more subtext than headline, an issue Siemens vice president of marketing for MR Don Fowler set out to resolve on the ISMRM exhibit floor.

Noncontrast, flow-dependent FIESTA offers a safe and effective alternative to gadolinium-enhanced MR angiography for renal artery evaluations, according to a study from Japan presented on Thursday.

The first three months after standard radiation therapy for a brain tumor must be hell for patients and their families. The established MacDonald criteria for assessing treatment force them to wait up to 10 weeks for follow-up CT or MR to determine if the size of the treated tumor has changed.

Diagnostic power and field strength go hand in hand when it comes to evaluating multiple sclerosis.

An Italian study involving 238 women has confirmed the value of MR mammography as a presurgical planning tool for appreciating the full extent of cancer in dense breasts.

A University of Maryland study suggests that diffusion tensor imaging may provide emergency room physicians with valuable information to assess the extent of injuries to the cervical spine.

Studies described during a scientific session at the ISMRM on Wednesday showed that diagnostic power and field strength go hand in hand when it comes to evaluating multiple sclerosis.

New MR spectroscopy findings indicate that changes in brain glutamate levels reflect changes in heroin craving among addicts during methadone maintenance therapy. MRS may eventually help predict if addicts will relapse after treatment.

Quality Electrodynamics has constructed and tested a 32-channel cardiac array for use on the Toshiba 1.5T Vantage Atlas that its developers say will provide acceleration factors in any direction, including oblique phase-encoding, which is often applied in cardiac imaging.

A comprehensive evaluation of Magnevist use among the 3.3 million members of Kaiser Permanente in Northern California has found a lower risk for developing nephrogenic systemic fibrosis than reported in previous studies in renal disease patients who received gadolinium-based MR contrast media.

Quantitative MR, characterized by the precise measurement of data points that underlie MR images, may one day provide an exact and definable basis to recognize the early signs of disease and response to therapy. Philips Healthcare is moving toward that day, developing techniques that quantify the presence of cancerous tumors and heart disease.

A clinical trial presented Monday demonstrated how complicated the quantification of dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI of suspected prostate cancer can be.

Assessment with MR is essential for the early detection of rheumatoid arthritis in the hands and the monitoring of drug therapy, but hand studies are not cost effective. That’s where the Japanese firm MR Technology of Tsukuba, in the prefecture of Ibaraki, comes in.

GE Healthcare’s gas-based MRI imaging strategy may find a home, if tests of the technology by Merck pan out. The pharmaceutical company plans to audition GE’s Spin Signal Technology (SST) utilizing hyperpolarized xenon 129 gas for use in assessing its experimental respiratory treatments.

A clinical trial presented Monday demonstrated how complicated the quantification of dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI of suspected prostate cancer can be.