MRI

When the best-of-breed information systems that now facilitate the practice of medicine have outlived their usefulness, Agfa Healthcare will be ready with the next generation of IT, if the president of Agfa Healthcare has his way.

Peripheral MR angiography is improved on first-pass imaging due to the high relaxivity of the MR blood pool agent Vasovist. The extended imaging window provided by the agent supports steady-state imaging not possible with other MR contrast media, producing ultrahigh spatial resolution MRA (second pass) demonstrating both arteries and veins in detail.

Diffusion-weighted MR of the bone may indicate within days whether and how well patients with metastatic cancer of the bone are responding to treatment. The software to support such conclusions is now being developed for commercial release later this year by Cedara Software.

The widespread use of cross-sectional imaging techniques means that renal masses are now a common incidental finding. The term renal mass covers a diverse group of pathologic entities, including inflammatory, vascular, and benign tumors and neoplastic lesions.

All five gadolinium-based MR agents on the U.S. market will carry a "black box" warning describing the risk of developing nephrogenic systemic fibrosis for patients with severe renal disease.

Patients examined at the Qilu Hospital of Shandong University in China for rectal cancer benefit from the added diagnostic power of 3T MRI for staging and identifying candidates for sphincter-sparing surgery.

German researchers have developed a protocol for MRI of the knee at 7T that reportedly allows visualization of all relevant anatomical structures and the most common pathologies.

Radiologists have not been able to obtain MR data of sufficient resolution to perform volumetric imaging of the colon within a breath-hold -- until now.

MR-guided biopsies at 3T are showing great promise in prostate cancer because of their speed and high tumor detection rate in patients with rising PSA levels and previous negative biopsies, according to a leading research team from the Netherlands. They also do well in patients who have had previous radiotherapy sessions.

Delayed-enhancement MRI earned the modality an essential role in myocardial assessments. Now it is showing promise for measuring intra-arterial inflammation in coronary artery disease and maybe systemic arteriosclerosis as well.

The two most prestigious poster awards were bestowed on research teams from the radiology department of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, at the ISMRM-ESMRMB congress on Thursday. Another top prize went to a team from Stanford University in California.

Nephrogenic systemic fibrosis is the train radiologists never saw coming. NSF is a painful, debilitating, possibly fatal skin disorder that has been linked to chelated gadolinium contrast media administered prior to MRI for patients with renal disorder. More than 200 cases have been confirmed worldwide.

The first brain images produced simultaneously with a prototype MR/PET scanner were shown at the Siemens Medical Solutions booth and in a scientific session in Berlin. The device, currently in development at a Siemens lab, integrates a PET detector into the bore of a 3T scanner.

Safety concerns that restrict the use of MR scanners to field strengths below 8T may not be warranted, based on research results presented May 24 in Berlin.

Preliminary studies presented Tuesday at the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine meeting in Berlin gave radiologists a glimpse of future imaging practices for cancer patients: a molecular nuclear imaging test to assess the extent of hypoxia and functional MRI to monitor the response of head and neck carcinoma to treatment.

MR-guided biopsies at 3T are showing great promise in prostate cancer because of their speed and high tumor detection rate in patients with rising PSA levels and previous negative biopsies, according to a leading research team from the Netherlands. They also do well in patients who have had previous radiotherapy sessions.

A novel low-field electromagnetic MR scanner has the potential to deliver high-quality images, even in the presence of metal implants, and can do so for radically less than the cost of conventional superconducting magnets.

Researchers in the U.K. have used functional MR imaging to show that patients with diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) respond differently to heat and pain stimulation compared with diabetic patients without peripheral neuropathy.

Before the dawn of political correctness, there was a time when girls were made of sugar and spice and everything nice, and boys were made of snips and snails and puppy dog tails. Now, functional MRI is confirming that boys and girls really don't think alike. Brain structures and functions that facilitate intelligence in girls are different for boys.

The use of sensitivity encoding and a gradient echo sequence in dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) perfusion imaging at 3T leads to fewer artifacts and better diagnostic quality, according to award-winning research from Denmark.

The differing interests of clinical and basic science researchers are apparent in the work of the finalists for Young Investigator Awards at this year’s ISMRM/ESMRMB meeting.

Preliminary studies presented Tuesday gave radiologists a glimpse of future imaging practices for cancer patients: a molecular nuclear imaging test to assess the extent of hypoxia and functional MRI to monitor the response of head and neck carcinoma to treatment.

Breast MRI may be particularly beneficial as a screening tool for Asian women, and its improved sensitivity and specificity are boosting cancer detection rates, according to a Taiwanese poster presentation.

A Georgetown University researcher has established a link between block time and per-click leasing arrangements and physician self-referral for high-tech imaging billed to a large healthcare insurer in California.

More is better and all but inevitable in medical imaging. In CT, more means slices. In MR, it’s channels for receiving radiofrequency signals. These currently number 32 on the most advanced commercially available systems. But a replacement for that benchmark is in the works.