MRI

In an industry muddled by clever wording and hidden meanings, the announcement at the 2006 RSNA meeting that Philips Medical Systems had developed an MR system that can be upgraded from 1.5T to 3T brought to mind the rumblings of a forklift and weeks of downtime.

Over the years, we've had the privilege of checking the vital signs of many imaging modalities. Diagnostic Imaging served as a witness to the rise and fall of digital subtraction angiography and reported the PET crisis of the mid-1990s.

Armed with 3T MRI, neuroradiologists are making progress in assessing multiple sclerosis through application of newer techniques such as diffusion tensor and triple-dose gadolinium imaging.

Despite imaging advances for coronary artery disease, few clinically available tools can accurately characterize the lipid-rich core of vulnerable plaque. A company in Israel wants to change that with a disposable intravascular MR imaging device that entered clinical trials in the U.S. in January.

A prospective trial published in the Jan. 27 issue of The Lancet has confirmed suspicions among neuroradiologists about the power of MRI to diagnose acute stroke, while finding noncontrast CT surprisingly insensitive to the potentially lethal disease.

The Illinois attorney general’s decision Jan. 11 to join a case regarding alleged illegal kickbacks from imaging centers to referring physicians gives credibility to a lawsuit filed last year and kept under seal until now.

Data from the first study of its kind suggest that MR imaging makes more sense diagnostically than arthroscopy in patients with possible knee pathology. Dutch researchers published results from the multicenter trial in the January issue of Radiology.

Cardiac MR imaging should be performed in elderly patients with acute chest pain to rule out Tako-Tsubo cardiomyopathy, also known as broken heart syndrome. The test could spare them a trip to the cath lab.

Selected peer-reviewed studies published from mid-December to mid-January added additional credence to the ability of delayed-enhancement MR angiography to assess myocardial infarction. Research expanded the list of cardiovascular capabilities of 64-slice CT to include predicting the future risk of coronary artery disease and uncovering the causes of unexplained chest pain. Artificial intelligence promises to make ejection fraction measurement with echocardiography faster and easier, and near-infrared fluorescence imaging creates a new dimension to thrombus imaging.

Findings by a team in Scotland have opened the way to an accurate predictive test that might help prevent the onset of schizophrenia. MR scans have revealed changes in brain tissue in a small group of individuals before they developed schizophrenia.

Use of breast ultrasound and MRI in Medicare beneficiaries has been on the rise in a big way, but the picture of mammography utilization in this patient population is less rosy.

The swift rise of percutaneous ablative interventions represents one example of the power of innovation-and how it can crush barriers that stand between discovery and adoption.

Researchers may agree that cardiac MR is the modality of choice for predicting left ventricular remodeling, but they remain split on which contrast-enhanced CMR technique produces the most accurate prediction.

PET imaging to diagnose brain tumor and monitor recurrence after treatment is an evolving field of research. Investigators at the RSNA meeting presented studies revolving around five tracers, as well as various permutations of imaging combinations such as FDG-PET with MR spectroscopy.

As a practicing radiologist for 28 years, I was happy to see the Point/Counterpoint repartee between Dr. Carter Newton and Dr. David Dowe in Diagnostic Imaging (September 2006, pages 24 and 25) regarding cardiac CT angiography. It's time the radiology community and the medical community at large understand the difference between real imaging professionals and doctors who believe that cardiac imaging is some type of divine entitlement.

MRI is underutilized in pelvic imaging, and it's only a matter of time before radiologists and referring physicians are educated about its utility, according to Dr. Elizabeth Sadowski, an assistant professor of radiology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Half of the people in the U.S. older than 50 could suffer fractures caused by osteoporosis over the next 13 years, according to a 2005 Surgeon General's report. Such ominous predictions move musculoskeletal conditions to the top of a long list of chronic diseases confronting baby boomers.

Radiologists put on trench coat and a leer to hit exhibit floor at RSNA conference

MRI and ultrasound can be useful tools in evaluating patients with early rheumatoid arthritis. Both techniques can detect pre-erosive synovial inflammation. They can also identify early bone damage before it becomes apparent on x-rays.

Reports linking gadolinium contrast agents administered during MRI and MR angiography studies with a debilitating, life-threatening skin disease have prompted a new public health warning from the FDA.

Identifying the origins of patellofemoral pain could help create consensus about its cause and treatment, saving patients from a therapeutic merry-go-round. Researchers using MRI and computer modeling techniques are closing in on these origins and are using imaging to chart biochemical changes that might trigger anatomic changes that produce pain.

A superbug may be lurking in the remote corners of your MRI or CT unit. Unless you adopt a rigorous cleaning regime, it could pose a grave risk to patients, according to new research from Ireland.

Continued concerns over breast MRI’s clinical cost-effectiveness can be fully addressed only if radiologists reach consensus on appropriate indications and development of standard protocols, according to New York-based researchers.

A study from Germany looks at the accuracy of CT angiography in detecting stenoses following CABG surgery. A head-to-head comparison from the Netherlands pits MSCTA against myocardial perfusion. A study from France determines if CTA can reliably calculate right ventricular function.

Most of the gadolinium-related adverse reactions reported recently are related to one particular agent -- gadodiamide -- according to preliminary data from a Danish radiologist.

Whole-body MR could complement -- in some cases, even replace altogether -- traditional bone scanning techniques, according to studies from Germany, Italy, and Spain released at the 2006 RSNA meeting in Chicago.

PET imaging to diagnose brain tumor and monitor recurrence after treatment is an evolving field of research. Investigators at the RSNA meeting presented studies revolving around five tracers, as well as various permutations of imaging combinations such as FDG-PET with MR spectroscopy. While results are promising, challenges remain before any of these research avenues becomes clinically routine.

PET imaging to diagnose brain tumor and monitor recurrence after treatment is an evolving field of research. Investigators at the RSNA meeting presented studies revolving around five tracers, as well as various permutations of imaging combinations such as FDG-PET with MR spectroscopy. While results are promising, challenges remain before any of these research avenues becomes clinically routine.

Radiologists perform most diagnostic and minimally invasive interventional musculoskeletal studies in the U.S., with some areas experiencing continuous growth. Data released last Wednesday at the RSNA meeting, however, suggest future turf battles between radiologists and surgeons are lurking on the horizon.

Molecular imaging is maturing as a scientific force in preclinical research and as a mechanism to guide imaging discoveries toward clinical practice.