MRI

Latest News


CME Content


When a smoker takes one puff of a cigarette, about 30% of the brain's most common nicotine receptors are affected. With three puffs, the nicotine in the cigarette occupies about 70% of the receptors. The smoker becomes satisfied when nearly all of the receptors are occupied, usually after smoking about three cigarettes.

Neuroimaging research has contributed enormously to our understanding of structural and functional differences between the brains of people with schizophrenia and those of healthy people. Imaging now offers insights into how drugs used to treat schizophrenia work as well as the genetic mechanisms that lie at the root of these disorders.

MRI performed at an unlimited specific absorption rate is safe in patients with some permanent pacemakers or implantable cardioverter/defibrillator systems, as long as precautions are taken, according to a study from Israel.

An unconscious, outwardly unresponsive patient apparently was capable of understanding and responding to certain commands as measured by functional MRI.

No fewer than eight medical specialty societies, including the American College of Radiology and a section of the American College of Cardiology, signed off on a report covering clinical appropriateness criteria for cardiac CT and MR. In other reports, a cardiologist proposes an imaging fellowship for cardiology, and a radiologist describes a strategy to win the coronary CT angiography turf war.

Cardiologists will become increasingly dependent on angiograms generated using CT and MR over the next three years, according to a report released by IMV Medical Information Division, a Des Plaines, IL, market research firm. Within that time, cardiologists predict that CT angiography will take the place of SPECT and cardiac catheterization for evaluating seven of 11 major cardiac conditions.

Two investigative studies have found that MR angiography at 3T produces quality images of the kidneys and excellent cardiac cine images. Researchers used high parallel imaging factors and a 32-element phased-array coil to increase spatial resolution and anatomic coverage.

An international multicenter trial has validated the Edmonton Protocol for islet cell infusion as a fitting treatment alternative for certain patients suffering from type 1 diabetes. Results appeared in the Sept. 28 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.