Right Scan Right Time

Better Images are Next Frontier for CT Iterative Recon

pt-admin — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 17:55:33 +0000

Iterative reconstruction techniques for CT were once limited to dose reduction. But a new generation of iterative reconstruction algorithms is focused on image quality, processing data more rapidly and delivering more-natural looking images as well. The additional imaging “horsepower” wielded by the new applications can be used to further reduce doses in coronary CT angiography and throughout the body — or to ameliorate the effects of other common scanning complications.

New MRI Method Detects Osteoarthritis

pt-admin — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 21:05:06 +0000

Researchers at New York University (NYU) have developed a way to use MRI to examine sodium ions in cartilage and view the development of osteoarthritis in knee joints. The research, which appears in the Journal of Magnetic Resonance, may provide a noninvasive method to diagnose osteoarthritis in its very early stages and help to calculate other, less direct measures of cartilage assessments.

CT Angiography gets Nod for Neonates with Heart Disease

pt-admin — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 21:12:14 +0000

When balancing the risks of radiation dose exposure from CT angiography with the risks associated with a cardiac catheterization procedure, pediatric radiologists in Taiwan are selecting the CT exam for neonates with complex congenital heart disease. The procedure is noninvasive and fast and requires minimal or no sedation.

Health Care Gap May Raise Rates of Colorectal Cancer Death in Blacks

pt-admin — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 21:06:08 +0000

“Colorectal cancer is one of the few cancers that has had advances in detection, treatment and survival over the second half of the 20th century. But despite these advancements, we observed ever-widening racial gaps in overall and stage-specific survival,” study author Samir Soneji, of the University of Pennsylvania, said in a news release from the Center for Advancing Health. Soneji and colleagues said the disparities identified in their study may be due to differences in the quality of health care. Compared to whites, blacks underwent less colorectal cancer screening and their cancer was detected at more advanced stages.

Payor Reaction to Healthcare Reform Could Affect Radiology

pt-admin — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:26:02 +0000

Amid the political firestorm over U.S. healthcare reform, one point has been ignored: the reaction of healthcare payors. That’s a major oversight because imaging providers run the risk of getting buried as payors retrench, according to a presentation at the American Healthcare Radiology Administrators (AHRA) annual meeting being held this week in Washington, DC. Healthcare reform scares insurers, and that fear could cause them to respond in ways that could dramatically affect radiology practices, said Ron Howrigon, president and founder of Fulcrum Strategies in Raleigh, NC, a company that provides physician consulting services. And not much national discussion is being given to the side effects of the legislation, which could be further bad news for radiologists.

Gold in Scan Finds Dangerous Artery Clogs: U.S. Study

pt-admin — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 21:46:07 +0000

Using an experimental scanner and nanoparticles of gold, U.S. researchers said they have found a way to identify the most dangerous types of blocked arteries. The gold nanoparticles home in on blockages loaded with immune cells, which other studies have shown are the most likely to break off and cause a heart attack, said the researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York said.

Rare Sharing of Data Leads to Progress on Alzheimer’s

pt-admin — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 22:28:46 +0000

In 2003, a group of scientists and executives from the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, the drug and medical-imaging industries, universities and nonprofit groups joined in a project that experts say had no precedent: a collaborative effort to find the biological markers that show the progression of Alzheimer’s disease in the human brain. Now, the effort is bearing fruit with a wealth of recent scientific papers on the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s using methods like PET scans and tests of spinal fluid. More than 100 studies are under way to test drugs that might slow or stop the disease.

New Preventive Cardiac Disease Screening Guidelines SHAPE-ing Up

pt-admin — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 22:26:15 +0000

The Society for Heart Attack Prevention and Eradication (SHAPE), which drew some controversy in 2006 when it published guidelines calling for screening a wide population of men and women with noninvasive imaging, is taking another look at the progress in heart disease predictors in order to refine and update those guidelines. The first SHAPE guidelines established standards for implementation of scientifically proven atherosclerosis tests to detect subclinical disease in the coronary and carotid arteries, and recommended the tests be incorporated into routine screening for all asymptomatic men aged 45 to 75 years and asymptomatic women aged 55 to 75 years, except for those defined as very low risk because of the absence of known risk factors. These guidelines became the basis for the Texas Heart Attack Prevention Bill, signed into law in Texas in August 2009.

Should Belly Fat Prompt Early Colon Cancer Screens?

pt-admin — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 21:48:28 +0000

A large waistline more than doubles the risk that people in their 40s will develop precancerous cells in the colon, according to Korean researchers. The chances of finding abnormal cells during a screening test were just as good in younger men with too much belly fat as in slimmer men over 50. As a result, the researchers recommend lowering the age of colon cancer screening from 50 years to 45 in men with weight problems. But US experts say it’s too soon to change the current recommendations.

Study: Breast Cancer Deaths Drop in Europe, Partly due to Mammo Screenings

pt-admin — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 21:46:05 +0000

Changes in breast cancer mortality after 1988 varied widely among European countries, and the U.K. is among the countries with the largest reductions, found a study published Aug. 11 in the British Medical Journal. Philippe Autier, MD, of the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France, and colleagues retrospectively examined changes in breast cancer mortality trends in women living in 30 European countries from 1989 to 2006.