- AI
- Molecular Imaging
- CT
- X-Ray
- Ultrasound
- MRI
- Facility Management
- Mammography
Desk-sized MR scanner tackles arthritis
Assessment with MR is essential for the early detection of rheumatoid arthritis in the hands and the monitoring of drug therapy, but hand studies are not cost-effective. That's where the Japanese firm MR Technology of Tsukuba, in the prefecture of Ibaraki, comes in.
Assessment with MR is essential for the early detection of rheumatoid arthritis in the hands and the monitoring of drug therapy, but hand studies are not cost-effective. That's where the Japanese firm MR Technology of Tsukuba, in the prefecture of Ibaraki, comes in.
The company, working with the Institute of Applied Physics at the University of Tsukuba, has developed a compact whole-hand MRI system using a 0.3T permanent magnet with a 16-cm gap. The scanner, with a 1.5 × 2-m footprint, produces an ellipsoidal imaging space covering 22 × 22 × 8 cm.
In a session at the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine meeting in May, the research team presented clinical experience with the scanner. Exams visualizing the whole hand were accomplished in six minutes.
Images included a fat-suppressed 2D scan obtained with a STIR-3D-FSE sequence acquired in less than 11 minutes.
A 3D maximum intensity projection image reconstructed from the fat-suppressed 3D image data set showed suppression of the bone marrow fat signal while visualizing long T2-weighted data returned by joint fluid and blood.
The researchers concluded that the system has potential to be used for whole-hand examinations to assess patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
-By Greg Freiherr
The Nonexistence of Perfect Balance in Radiology
September 16th 2024In the elusive pursuit of reconciling case volume and having an appropriate number of radiologists, the proverbial windsurfer may fare better than stand-up paddleboarders and daredevil surfers at navigating the waves of the profession.
Can Portable Dual-Energy X-Ray be a Viable Alternative to CT in the ICU?
September 13th 2024The use of a portable dual-energy X-ray detector in the ICU at one community hospital reportedly facilitated a 37.5 percent decrease in chest CT exams in comparison to the previous three months, according to research presented at the American Society of Emergency Radiology (ASER) meeting in Washington, D.C.
