Ultrasound

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Acusphere slips from Nasdaq complianceTomoTherapy taps new board member

Global demand for hand-carried ultrasound units rose 42% in 2007, according to industry analyst Harvey Klein. Total medical sales were $565 million compared to $398 million the year before.

The massive American College of Radiology Imaging Network 6666 trial shows that adding ultrasound to the initial breast screening protocol for high-risk women could help detect 30% more cancers, but at the questionable cost of many more needless biopsies of benign lesions.

Prostate cancer imaging experts sent out a clear message in 2007: Prostate cancer in the U.S. has become an unrecognized patient care crisis that needs tackling. The good news is these experts agree that advanced imaging technologies could help in early detection and minimally invasive treatment. The lack of a cohesive national strategy is worrisome, however, and they want to see the adoption of a broad initiative for diagnosing and treating prostate cancer similar to that for breast cancer.

Researchers in Belgium have found that MR elastography is more accurate than a blood test commonly used in the noninvasive staging of liver fibrosis. The study adds weight to clinical literature that suggests MR elastography could replace biopsy.

Plans for a clinical trial designed to overcome long-standing regulatory obstacles to the general clinical use of ultrasound contrast media in the U.S. have been knocked off track by an FDA-mandated black box safety warning for two microbubble agents approved for echocardiography.

Researchers used a customized search engine to quickly find that most discordant resident versus attending physician preliminary reports involved fractures, liver/kidney lesions, pulmonary nodules, and gastrointestinal wall thickening.

A large prospective screening trial from the University of Pennsylvania compared screen-film mammography, digital mammography, whole-breast ultrasound, and contrast-enhanced MRI in a population of 569 asymptomatic women. In this single-center trial, funded by the National Cancer Institute, the definition of high risk included women with a 25% lifetime risk based on genetic testing or Gail or Claus models and those with a history of cancer in the contralateral breast.

Business briefs

Mindray 2007 revenues grow amid new product releaseNaviscan appoints upper executive tierDigirad taps board chairman

Business briefs

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GE Healthcare this week introduced two tailored, highly portable ultrasound systems, one for emergency medicine, the other for anesthesia. Although these systems are narrowly focused in the clinical sense, they reflect a multifaceted corporate approach to ultrasound that leverages different technologies to achieve specific goals.