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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 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.

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.

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.

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.