Ultrasound

Mindray plans color ultrasound releasesCytogen buries legal hatchet over MR contrastNightHawk shares take a beatingSonoSite shares slide after 4Q reportDigirad revenues slip

Pacific Coast Ultrasound of Los Alamitos, CA, operates at the nexus between medical need and self-indulgence, specializing in prenatal diagnostics and medically supervised 3D/4D prenatal elective ultrasounds. Throughout February, the center, which positions itself as a certified independent diagnostic facility, promotes a month-long tribute to Valentine’s Day.

Early 2007 has been a robust period for the publication of meaningful cardiac imaging research. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke’s landmark comparison of noncontrast CT and MRI for stroke confirmed what many neuroradiologists suspected: MRI is the new gold standard for the initial diagnosis and subsequent evaluations of acute stroke. In another compelling study, Swedish researchers found that heart patients equipped with drug-eluting stents are more like to die in the three years following installation than patients who received bare metal stents.

Hypotensive patients with blunt abdominal trauma could skip the CT in the emergency department and go directly to exploratory laparotomy when they have positive focused abdominal sonography for trauma (FAST) findings, according to researchers from the University of California, Davis.

GE Medical Systems, SonoSite, and Zonare will drive hand-carried ultrasound to $1 billion in worldwide revenues in the next five years, according to long-standing ultrasound analyst Harvey Klein. He expected these three companies, the current leaders in this sector, to continue to lead in the years ahead. He put SonoSite at the top of the U.S. market in 2006 sales, followed closely by GE, and described the worldwide competition between these two companies in 2006 as very close.

The imaging industry in 2006 beat the previous year’s record number of FDA clearances, tallying 360 compared with 349 in 2005. Vendors scored 34 in September and 25 in October before surging with 46 clearances in November, then finished the year with 28 in December.

This first Ultrasound Source journal review includes a head-to-head comparison between MRI and sonography in patients with sphincter defects and an interesting study with a large patient population proposing FAST scanning as a reliable selection tool for patients needing laparotomy. We also recommend a study evaluating two ultrasound imaging techniques for ablation guidance; a trial comparing sonography, MRI, and CT to define surgical margins in patients with chest wall tumors; and an interesting British study using 3D sonography to gauge abdominal aortic aneurysms.

Contrast-enhanced ultrasound offers a viable alternative to CT imaging for evaluating and monitoring renal cell carcinoma, according to three papers presented at the 2006 RSNA meeting.

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Breast ultrasound is a highly useful tool in the hands of an expert, but it is notoriously operator-dependent. Systems that offer partial or full automation to minimize performance variability are gaining attention, as trial data accumulate and system designs evolve.

Siemens' P-10, a palm-sized ultrasound scanner shown for the first time at the RSNA meeting, is due out later this year. But radiologists probably won't be using the Blackberry-like device.

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.

Contrast-enhanced lymphosonography finds more sentinel lymph nodes than can established nuclear medicine techniques, according to preliminary animal studies focusing on melanoma.

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Most radiologists surveyed by the Society for Radiologists in Ultrasound said they perform more than 10 thyroid aspirations each week. However, few of them used consistent criteria to determine which nodules were chosen for aspiration, according to data released at the RSNA meeting.

Although ultrasound can find occult cancers in women with dense breasts, it is time-consuming, operator dependent, and limited in penetration and interpretation. Conventional scanners typically provide only 2D images. U-Systems has spent the last three years building an ultrasound machine that overcomes these problems.

Most radiologists surveyed by the Society for Radiologists in Ultrasound said they perform more than 10 thyroid aspirations each week. But few used consistent criteria to determine which nodules were chosen for aspiration. Institutions performing more thyroid aspirations seem to find more malignant nodules, but the survey didn’t determine if this was a result of better methodology or simply a matter of patient selection.

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Over the past 50 years, imagers have witnessed dramatic improvements in ultrasound image quality, resolution, availability, and range of indications. Most of these advances occurred within the confines of 2D planar imaging.

Contrast-enhanced ultrasound may offer more sensitive and more detailed detection of endoleaks for aortic stent-grafts than CT angiography, according to research presented at the 2006 RSNA meeting. The two techniques might best be used in combination, said researchers from the University of Insubria in Varese, Italy.

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 thrust for Richland, WA-based Advanced Imaging Technologies over the last four years has been to transform the acoustical holography system developed by its predecessor firm, Advanced Diagnostics, into a commercial product. The fruit of those labors is the company’s first product, its Aria Breast Imaging System.

Cryotherapy is often portrayed as radiofrequency ablation's little brother. But the thermal ablation technique is proving safer and more effective than previously thought, according to several papers presented at the RSNA meeting.

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.

Canadian and U.S. radiologists face different regulatory restrictions for the use of ultrasound contrast agents. However, both sides are coming up with similar evidence about their positive effect on clinical practice.

The FDA has denied a request for over-the-counter sales of handheld Doppler fetoscopes.

Breast ultrasound elastography allows radiologists to accurately distinguish benign from malignant breast lesions. The technique correctly identified both cancerous and benign lesions in nearly 125 cases studied.

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.

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.