In the News
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08.4.10
MR Spectroscopy with MRI Detects Prostate Cancer Recurrence
Combining MR spectroscopy with T2-weighted MR imaging “significantly improves” the diagnostic accuracy of endorectal MRI to detect locally recurrent prostate cancer after external-beam radiation therapy, according to a study in the August issue of Radiology. Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) concluded that the additional information may help advise patients about subsequent clinical evaluation, and help clinicians select patients for whom targeted prostateside biopsy is appropriate for confirming the disease (Radiology, Vol. 256:2, pp. 485-492).
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08.3.10
AJR: Breast MRI Screening Beneficial for some with Previous Cancer
Breast MRI screening of women with only a personal, not familial, history of breast cancer was clinically valuable in finding malignancies for 12 percent of all cases, with a reasonable biopsy rate of 39 percent, found a study published in the August issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology. Sandra Brennan, MB, and her colleagues from the department of radiology, breast imaging section at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City conducted their study to determine whether women with only a personal history of breast cancer and without indications for MRI screening under current American Cancer Society guidelines would benefit from screening.
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08.3.10
Latest Findings in CT Radiation Dose Reduction Efforts
In recent years, advances in CT scanner technology have made perfusion computed tomography (CT) imaging an important diagnostic tool for patients with suspected stroke. Now, researchers at Mayo Clinic are working to reduce radiation dosages used to acquire perfusion and other CT images. Mayo Clinic medical physicist Cynthia McCollough, Ph.D., and her group of researchers presented their findings related to CT dose reduction at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine on July 20 in Philadelphia. The presentation was entitled “20-Fold Dose Reduction Using a Gradient Adaptive Bilateral Filter: Demonstration Using in Vivo Animal Perfusion CT.”
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08.3.10
Perfusion Cardiac MRI Determines Severity of Coronary Artery Stenosis
A new technique for measuring blood perfusion reserve with cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) improves the evaluation of three-vessel coronary artery disease and identifies scarred myocardium supplied by a severely narrowed artery. Cardiac MRI is a “very comprehensive exam” that provides information that other imaging modalities can’t, senior author Dr. Christopher M. Kramer from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, told Reuters Health.
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08.2.10
Health Reform Rule Makes Preventive Care Free for Many
Health plans that are created or significantly changed after Sept. 22 must cover a variety of evidence-based preventive services without requiring co-pays or other cost sharing, says an interim final rule released July 14 by the Health and Human Services, Treasury, and Labor Depts. The rule names a list of vaccines, preventive screenings and services for adults and children endorsed by federal scientific panels, including tests for cancer, heart ailments, obesity and other conditions. It also includes a list of preventive services for women that will be developed by a new federal panel next year.
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07.28.10
Can functional MRI help diagnose Alzheimer’s disease?
One of the frustrating things about suspecting a loved one has Alzheimer’s disease is that no definitive test of any kind can make a firm diagnosis. Only an autopsy can confirm that a person had the disease. That’s why scientists are working to use new types of brain imaging in hopes that such a test may soon be possible. Two leading possibilities are functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or fMRI, and positron emission tomography, or PET.
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07.27.10
Screening: Insurance and Colorectal Cancer
The number of Americans being screened for colorectal cancer continues to increase, but the vast majority of the uninsured still do not get screened for this cancer, which is the second leading cause of cancer deaths after lung cancer, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. Almost two-thirds of Americans ages 50 to 75, or 62.9 percent, had been screened for the cancer recently, according to 2008 data, up from 51.9 percent in 2002, the C.D.C. reported. But just over one-third of those without health insurance — 35.6 percent — had been screened, the report said.
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07.27.10
Is a Colonoscopy More Effective in High-Def?
You’ve seen high-definition televisions. Now some medical centers are marketing their high-definitioncolonoscopes, which they say will detect more pre-cancerous polyps. Several recent studies have found a small benefit to high-definition colonoscopy over the standard variety, but gastroenterologists say physician technique is more important in detecting polyps than equipment.
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07.27.10
Putting Stage IV in Its Place
This February, when the U.S. Congress was trying to help make medical radiation safer for patients and providers alike, one of the experts it turned to for advice was Suzanne Lindley, a Stage IV colon cancer survivor for more than 11 years.
Found on pages 64-65
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07.27.10
New Technique Provides More Targeted Radiation Therapy of Brain Cancer
Children with brain cancer who undergo chemotherapy may benefit from a technique known as intensity-modulated arc therapy (IMAT). New research findings reported here at the American Association of Physicists in Medicine 52nd Annual Meeting by Chris Beltran, PhD, from St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, show that IMAT may effectively irradiate pediatric brain tumors while reducing exposure to surrounding tissue compared with the more conventional intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT).
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