MRI

A little diffusion imaging goes a long way toward boosting the accuracy of whole-body MRI and matching the performance of whole-body FDG-PET/CT for M-staging of non-small cell lung cancer.

Diastematomyelia case study: A 40-year-old man with upper and lower back pain. He denied any bowel or bladder dysfunction, radiating symptoms, or motor deficits.

Interventional radiologists, like their diagnostic counterparts, remain under pressure as payers ratchet back reimbursements. But they continue to fight on the reimbursement front and see some silver linings in new government programs designed to improve the quality of care.

Necessity is not always the mother of invention. If you are Dr. Roderic Pettigrew, director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, invention can germinate from any number of sources. The likelihood of its ultimate adoption increases with the help of federal funds and the guidance that comes from an interdisciplinary approach to medical research and development.

Posterior fossa anomalies detected on fetal MR imaging should be confirmed with postnatal imaging, according to a study in the June American Journal of Roentgenology. Investigators from the U.S. and Canada found significant discrepancies between fetal and postnatal posterior fossa findings on MRI.

Advanced gradients and parallel imaging, along with ergonomic features, combine to boost productivity A new 3T scanner unveiled last month by GE Healthcare delivers unprecedented speed and resolution in some of the toughest areas of the body to image. Combining advanced parallel imaging software with powerful gradients and an optical radiofrequency transmit system, the MR750 can complete high-resolution liver exams in 15 minutes, according to the company.

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

With piles of accumulated evidence demonstrating the ability of multislice CT to diagnose coronary artery disease, researchers are expanding clinical application of the modality to the measurement of myocardial viability following infarction.

News of Sen. Edward Kennedy’s diagnosis with a malignant glioma shocked the nation. It has also raised awareness about the grim prognosis associated with this type of brain tumor. A new study conducted by the American College of Radiology’s Radiation Therapy Oncology Group could bring hope to glioma patients.

When it comes to getting respect, radiologists are apparently the Rodney Dangerfield of the medical profession.

Just as Old Faithful will gush like clockwork every hour on the hour, CT procedure volumes will grow year after year-or so I thought.

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.