MRI

Siemens Healthcare is focusing on its 3T Verio and 1.5T Essenza at the ISMRM meeting. Both were unveiled last year at the RSNA meeting.

Visitors to the 2008 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine meeting in Toronto need only wait a minute for the door to swing from clinical issues to advanced research on functional and metabolic imaging.

Therapeutic treatment in the very early stages of multiple sclerosis can help patients reduce brain tissue loss and maintain function. Brain atrophy is a common symptom in the relapsing-remitting form of the disease.

A couple of days ago I was in the zone. Shawna’s surgical mask hid her face, but I knew she was smiling. My banter was enough to make her laugh out loud a few times, so much that she paused while laying out the stainless steel instruments that soon would be probing the all too deep pockets between my teeth and gums.

Preoperative failure to identify vessels that could be recanalized or used for graft anastomosis may result in unnecessary amputations

Results of the EPITHET trial indicate MRI perfusion-diffusion mismatch can add a crucial three extra hours for safe administration of tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) to treat qualified acute stroke patients.

To the listener, jazz improvisation is an aural flight of fancy, borne aloft by a musician's on-the-spot skill and imagination. But functional MRI results show the brain actually follows a grounded process of activation and deactivation during these spontaneous musical riffs, according to researchers from the National Institutes of Health and Johns Hopkins University.

New brain imaging research shows that social drinkers experience decreased sensitivity in brain regions involved in detecting threats and increased activity in regions involved in reward after consuming alcohol. The first human brain imaging study of alcohol’s effect on the response of neuronal circuits to threatening stimuli appears in the April 30 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience.

Neuroimaging with MRI at 3T is superior for nearly every application in the brain and spine, and it is certainly inferior for none. The technique has unique strengths for performing vascular work and functional brain imaging, but there is nothing that a 3T MR scanner can't do better than a 1.5T machine.

Despite expanding clinical applications driven by functional and breast imaging, MR scanners are stuck in a sales doldrums.

Sophisticated pulse sequence developments and practical applications for diffusion imaging dominated the work of finalists selected for the ISMRM’s 2008 Young Investigator Awards.

An 85-year-old woman complained of long-term mild abdominal pain. Abdominal examination revealed a palpable mass in the left paraumbilical region.

Computer-aided detection schemes for breast MR imaging have shown plenty of promise, but they always fall short of full automation and lesion characterization. Two recent studies, however, suggest CAD for breast MRI may be closing in on true cancer detection.

A casual attitude toward keeping track of gadolinium-enhanced studies may come back to haunt radiology departments that have become involved in several federal lawsuits alleging a connection between cases of nephrogenic systemic fibrosis and gadolinium-based MR contrast agents.

What’s happening with the American Roentgen Ray Society? Its annual meeting, known mainly for the quality of its refresher course, has become an essential point of coverage for world-class scientific research as well.

A preliminary study indicates that first-pass and delayed-enhancement myocardial CT correlate well with measures of infarction size gathered with equivalent cardiac MR procedures.

Dr. Fred L. Steinberg and his imaging centers and related entities in Palm Beach County near Miami will pay $7 million to settle alleged violations of federal Stark self-referral law and anti-kickback statutes. He was also charged with billing fraud.

New evidence has surfaced pinpointing specific potential causes of nephrogenic systemic fibrosis. Findings sustain its relationship to some gadolinium-based contrast media, but they also suggest that infection, certain patient demographics, and even some drugs could be strongly associated with the condition.

Widespread muscle and tissue pain, tenderness, and fatigue are well-documented symptoms of fibromyalgia, a chronic condition that affects up to an estimated 6% of the U.S. population. The underlying pathology of the pain disease is unknown. A new study featuring proton MR spectroscopy, however, has found a key linkage between the pain and a specific brain molecule.

A recent “Sentinel Alert” from the Joint Commission addressing the prevention of accidents and injuries in the MRI suite stated:

Nephrogenic systemic fibrosis has received widespread attention, but official protocols on how to avoid the life-threatening skin condition are quite sparse: Only one section in the American College of Radiology’s 2007 white paper on safe MR practices is devoted to the condition.

Force feedback shows potential for tissue segmentation and interventional planning

Protocol Could Widen Three-Hour Treatment Window