Doctor recommends MRI for women with pelvic pain

Dr. Faraz Khan, an interventional radiologist at Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Imaging Center, is encouraging women who are experiencing chronic pelvic pain to ask for a magnetic resonance imaging test, MRI.

"It's not a new technique," Khan said. "It's just a technique not being used as much as it should. The pictures aren't very clear and an MRI takes the same picture but it's three-dimensional. The picture looks like you opened up the patient rather than a fuzzy, black and white image. An MRI is what helped Kahn properly diagnose Marcia Williams, of North Houston, who lived with chronic pelvic pain for several years.

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Allergic Reactions To Gadolinium Based Contrast Agents Are Rare, Study Finds

Allergic-like reactions to gadolinium-containing contrast injections in adults and pediatric patients (those younger than 19 years of age) are rare, according to a recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan Health Systems in Ann Arbor. "When these reactions do occur, most of them are mild," said Jonathan R. Dillman, MD, lead author of the study.

"Over the past few years, the utilization of contrast-enhanced MRI has markedly increased; it's increased by 65% at our institution over the previous five years," said Dr. Dillman.. This is due, at least in part, to a variety of new applications, such as magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) and abdominopelvic MR imaging," he said. "Consequently, the number of intravenously administered gadolinium-containing contrast material doses over the same time period has significantly increased. Based on the extensive use these intravascular contrast agents, we felt that it was once again time to study their safety profile," he said.

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A Weaker, Cheaper MRI

Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory have made what they say are the first images of a human brain using magnetic fields a hundred-thousandth the strength of conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), paving the way for lower cost medical images that might be better at detecting tumors.

Though the resolution is much lower than that in conventional MRIs, the images “show we have a potential for pretty good results,” says Vadim Zotev, a researcher in Los Alamos’s applied modern physics group. (That’s his head in the images.)

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Society Of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Chooses Open Access

BioMed Central, the world's largest publisher of open access journals, is pleased to announce that the Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (JCMR) is moving to BioMed Central's open access publishing platform from the traditional subscription publishers, Taylor & Francis. The move from a subscription publisher to BioMed Central will allow the Society of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (SCMR) members and JCMR authors to disseminate their research in the burgeoning field of cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging and spectroscopy more efficiently. In addition, BioMed Central's open access policy ensures that their work will reach not only other SCMR members, but the widest possible global audience.

Beginning in January 2008, JCMR (http://www.jcmr-online.com) readers will have free, instant online access to all published articles not only on BioMed Central's website, but also on PubMed Central as well as other open access repositories, free from the constraints of print publication cycles.

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Recommendations On CT Scanning, UK

The Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment (COMARE) has published a number of recommendations* on the use of computed tomography (CT) X-ray scans by private clinics. This advanced X-ray technique is increasingly being used to provide examinations of people who have no symptoms of illness (asymptomatic individuals). While a CT scan undoubtedly provides valuable diagnostic information, such scans produce a significant radiation dose to the patient and this needs to be justified on medical grounds.

COMARE have looked at this practice in depth and have made nine recommendations. The Agency supports the recommendations made by the Committee. In particular, the Agency notes the recommendation that services offering whole body scanning of asymptomatic individuals should stop doing so immediately. There is very little evidence that any benefit of this practice outweighs the potential risk of a significant radiation dose. Until such evidence is produced, the Agency strongly supports COMARE's recommendation that the practice should stop.

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PET/CT Imaging Proves Golden For Detecting Cancer In Children

PET/CT imaging exhibits significantly higher sensitivity, specificity and accuracy than conventional imaging when it comes to detecting malignant tumors in children, according to research published in the December issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine. And that's not all: PET/CT imaging provides doctors with additional information about cancer in children, possibly sparing young patients from being overtreated.

"PET/CT is useful in finding small tumors in small children and is a promising imaging tool in evaluating pediatric malignancies," said Richard L. Wahl, the Henry N. Wagner, Jr., M.D., Professor in Nuclear Medicine at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore, Md. "In our study, we found that PET/CT can detect small lymph node lesions diagnosed as negative with conventional (or anatomical) imaging and deny the presence of active disease in soft-tissue masses post-treatment - especially in children with a wide range of malignant cancers," explained the Hopkins professor of radiology and oncology. "Using PET/CT could help spare children from overtreatment while fighting their disease," he added.

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Trauma & Routine Assessments Enhanced With World's First Adaptive CT

Siemens Medical Solutions has developed the SOMATOM Definition AS, the first CT scanner that adapts to virtually any patient and clinical need. The system is suitable for routine diagnostic work and complex examinations including oncology, neurology and cardiology. The first system has recently been installed at the University Hospital Trauma Centre in Erlangen, Germany.

The SOMATOM Definition AS provides a fast and accurate diagnosis making the system highly suitable for emergency situations, such as accidents, heart attacks and strokes, where a swift course of treatment can be life saving. It also speeds up examinations for traditionally difficult patients such as children, the obese and those suffering from claustrophobia, thereby alleviating potentially stressful situations and still ensuring the highest diagnostic confidence.

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World's Most Powerful MRI Ready To Scan Human Brain

The world's most powerful medical magnetic resonance imaging machine, the 9.4 Tesla at the University of Illinois at Chicago, has successfully completed safety trials and may soon offer physicians a real-time view of biological processes in the human brain.

The safety study was published in the November Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging in an issue focused on MRI safety.

Researchers and physicians hope that the 9.4T will usher in a new era of brain imaging in which they will be able to observe metabolic processes and customize health care.

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Hazards Of CT Scans Overstated

Concerns over possible radiation effects of CT scans detailed in a report last Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine should not scare people away from getting medically needed CT scans, as the scans play a critical role in saving the lives of thousands of people every day, according to an official with the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM).

In a statement issued last Friday, Dr. John M. Boone, chairman of AAPM's science council, says that the "science community remains divided" over the radiation dose effects of CT scans and that the findings in the Journal article were based on "flawed assumptions" and were not conclusive. While agreeing with the Journal article's authors, Drs. David Brenner and Eric Hall, that CT scans should only be used judiciously and when medically necessary, Boone says CT experts in the AAPM "feel that much of the message of this article may be misconstrued or misunderstood by the press or by the public who may not be experts in CT."

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MRE Could Provide A Definitive Diagnosis For People With Muscle Pain

An estimated nine million men and women in the United States live with myofascial pain syndrome, a condition marked by pain that permeates muscles in the neck, back and shoulders. The condition is difficult to diagnose and not entirely understood, but research studies indicate that a new imaging technology developed at Mayo Clinic holds promise for a definitive diagnosis and, perhaps eventually, new treatments for people who have the syndrome.

A Mayo Clinic study published in the November issue of the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation shows that magnetic resonance elastography, or MRE, can provide images of the affected muscle with clarity and insight not possible with magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI. While an MRI uses a magnetic field and radio waves to create clear and detailed cross-sectional images of the body's internal tissues and organs, an MRE measures the elasticity of tissue as it is gently vibrated.

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Can CT Scans Raise Cancer Risk?

Nov. 28, 2007 -- As many as 20 million adults and 1 million children in the U.S. receive unnecessary computed tomography (CT) scans each year, potentially causing thousands of excess cancers in decades to come, researchers say.

Writing in Wednesday's issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, the Columbia University researchers warned that the dramatic rise in CT usage to diagnose medical problems and screen for disease could pose a significant risk to public health.

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PET/CT Brings New Hope To Patients With Deadly Form Of Breast Cancer

Researchers are improving the chances of women faced with an aggressive and difficult to diagnose form of breast cancer. Inflammatory breast cancer spreads quickly and can be lethal in six to nine months. But by using fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography combined with computed tomography (FDG-PET/CT), radiologists and physicists are able to spot the spread of cancer earlier, according to a study presented yesterday at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

"PET/CT is useful in staging inflammatory breast cancer, because it provides information on both the primary disease site, as well as disease involvement throughout the rest of the body," said Selin Carkaci, M.D., assistant professor of diagnostic radiology at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center (UTMDACC) in Houston. "In addition, PET/CT is also a practical tool for therapeutic planning."

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PET Imaging May Improve Lung Cancer Diagnosis

Tumor imaging with positron emission tomography (PET) may improve the diagnosis and subsequent treatment of lung cancer patients, according to a review published online November 27 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Tumor imaging is frequently used in the diagnosis of lung cancer and is important for making treatment decisions. Standard imaging technologies, such as magnetic resonance imaging or computed tomography imaging, provide information on anatomical changes, but PET imaging is based on biochemical processes that may detect disease even before anatomical changes occur. Therefore, PET imaging may complement standard imaging in the diagnosis of lung cancer.

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CT Angiography Highly Accurate, Multicenter Trials Show

Computed tomography (CT) angiography is as accurate as an invasive angiogram in detecting coronary artery disease, according to the findings of the first two prospective multicenter 64-slice scanner trials presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

"These two trials with comparable results clearly set the stage for the widespread adoption of and reimbursement for coronary artery CT examinations," said Gerald D. Dodd III, M.D., chair of the Department of Radiology at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio.

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Toshiba Launches Breakthrough CT System - The AquilionONE

Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc., a leader in diagnostic and medical imaging, introduced the world's first dynamic volume computed tomography (CT) system - the AquilionONE™. This advanced diagnostic imaging system revolutionizes patient care because it can help reduce diagnosis time for life threatening diseases like stroke and heart disease from days and hours to mere minutes. AquilionONE, will debut at the Radiological Society of North America's annual meeting in Chicago.

For the first time, physicians can see not only a three-dimensional depiction of an organ, but also the organ's dynamic blood flow and function. Unlike any other CT system, the AquilionONE can scan one organ - including the heart, brain and others - in one rotation because it covers up to 16 cm of anatomy using 320 ultra high resolution 0.5mm detector elements. This reduces exam time, as well as radiation and contrast dose, and dramatically increases diagnostic confidence. With the AquilionONE, the organ or area is captured in a single rotation at one moment in time, eliminating the need to reconstruct slices from multiple points in time.

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Philips Unveils Computed Tomography (CT) System That Scans The Heart In Two Beats To Aid In Diagnosis And Treatment Of Serious Health Conditions

Last week, at the 93rd annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) in Chicago, Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) unveiled its latest innovative healthcare products and technologies that seek to make a difference in how radiologists can prevent, diagnose, treat and monitor disease, and allow them to focus more on their patients.

Among the Philips innovations featured at RSNA will be CT products designed specifically to improve image quality and reduce dose in the most demanding studies. The flagship product, the 256-slice Brilliance iCT scanner, allows radiologists to produce high-quality images with exceptional acquisition speed, including complete coverage of the heart and brain. It is so powerful it can capture an image of the entire heart in just two beats, while incorporating Philips technology that has reduced radiation doses by up to 80 percent.[1]

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Hitachi Commercializes OASIS, the Highest Field Strength Open MRI

Hitachi Medical Systems America commercialized OASIS, its new patient-centered open architecture MRI scanner, at the Scientific Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America. This system, with its superconducting 1.2T vertical field magnet, was cleared for marketing by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in September of this year.

"OASIS has the highest field-strength whole body vertical field magnet available," points out Shawn Etheridge, Director, MR Marketing, at Hitachi Medical Systems. "Couple that strength with the sensitive Zenith(TM) receiver coils and 1.5T imaging electronics, and you net high-field clinical performance."

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Confirma Expands Computer-Aided-Detection (CAD) For MRI To Prostate, Assisting In Improved Cancer Detection

Confirma(R), pioneer and leader in application-specific CAD for MRI, announced the introduction of CADstream for prostate for improved analysis and reporting of the prostate. The prostate application will offer radiologists comprehensive and clinically valuable tools for improved quality, standardization and efficiency of MRI studies. CADstream for prostate will be presented at the upcoming Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) meeting, the largest medical meeting in the world and the pre-eminent venue for introducing new technologies for radiology (November 25-27, Chicago). At the meeting, the company will also introduce the next generation of CADstream for breast MRI.

"Over the past five years, CADstream for breast MRI has received broad-scale acceptance from the women's imaging community," said Wayne Wager, president and CEO, Confirma, Inc. "We believe that prostate research studies and ongoing development with our clinical sites will help establish CAD within the men's imaging community. CAD provides physicians with valuable tools to improve the detection of cancer and treatment planning."

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Post-treatment PET Scans Can Reassure Cervical Cancer Patients

Whole-body PET (positron emission tomography) scans done three months after completion of cervical cancer therapy can ensure that patients are disease-free or warn that further interventions are needed, according to a study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

"This is the first time we can say that we have a reliable test to follow cervical cancer patients after therapy," says Julie K. Schwarz, M.D., Ph.D., a Barnes-Jewish Hospital resident in the Department of Radiation Oncology. "We ask them to come back for a follow-up visit about three months after treatment is finished, and we perform a PET scan. If the scan shows a complete response to treatment, we can say with confidence that they are going to do extremely well. That's really powerful."

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Use Of Intraoperative MRI Adds Time But Care Changing Information To Neurosurgery

Although the use of intraoperative MRI can add time to surgical procedures, it can help surgeons detect residual disease and, if needed, modify their plan for surgery while the patient is on the operating room table, according to a study conducted by researchers at the University Hospitals of Cleveland/Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD.

The study included 122 patients between the ages of 6 - 77 who underwent 130 neurosurgical and ear, nose and throat procedures, including 106 craniotomies and 17 pituitary resections. The study showed that 73% of the patients who had undergone intraoperative MRI had additional surgical resection based on the intraoperative findings, said Jonathan Lewin, MD, lead author of the study. Each patient had between one and five intra-or postoperative imaging sessions which were between 1.7 seconds to 8 minutes. According to the study, the added total imaging time per case was around 35 minutes.

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Toshiba Announces Its Fourth Generation Contrast-Free Technique - Time And Space Angiography (TSA)

As the leading developer of contrast-free magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) techniques, Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc., introduced a fourth generation contrast-free imaging technique, Time and Space Angiography (TSA). Adding to the robust offering of contrast-free techniques from Toshiba, TSA creates images that show dynamic blood flow without using contrast agents. As the first medical imaging company to introduce advanced contrast-free MRA techniques, Toshiba is further expanding the capabilities and safety of MRA imaging.

TSA will have a variety of clinical benefits to improve both diagnostic confidence and patient care and safety. TSA builds upon the pioneering Time-Spatial Labeling Inversion Pulse technique (Time-SLIP) and is especially desirable for patients with compromised circulations and renal flow problems. It features an extremely high temporal resolution and a continually changing inversion pulse time, creating dynamic images showing blood flow in motion.

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MRI Best To Detect Cancer Spread Into Breast Ducts

MRI is better than MDCT for determining if and how far breast cancer has spread into the breast ducts and should be used before patients receive breast conserving treatment, a new study shows.

"Patients have a lower survival rate if their surgical margins are positive for tumor cells. A positive surgical margin is commonly the result of inadequate resection of the cancer's intraductal component," said Akiko Shimauchi, MD, at Tohoku University in Sendai, Miyagi, Japan. "Accurate preoperative diagnosis of the intraductal component allows the surgeon to achieve a cancer-free surgical margin," she said.

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PET Scans Useful For Some Cancer Treatment, But How Do Patients Fare?

Positron emission tomography or PET scans can help clinicians diagnose and treat some cancers, but it is not clear yet whether the imaging technology helps people with cancer live longer and healthier lives, according to a comprehensive review by the U.K. National Health Service.

PET scans are one of the latest tools used to detect and determine a cancer's activity in the body. PET is generally more accurate than other imaging technologies such as computerized tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. Using tiny radioactive elements, a PET scan can zero in on the distinctive biochemical fingerprints that distinguish cancerous cells from normal tissue.

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Toshiba Announces Its Fourth Generation Contrast-Free Technique - Time And Space Angiography (TSA)

As the leading developer of contrast-free magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) techniques, Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc., introduced a fourth generation contrast-free imaging technique, Time and Space Angiography (TSA). Adding to the robust offering of contrast-free techniques from Toshiba, TSA creates images that show dynamic blood flow without using contrast agents. As the first medical imaging company to introduce advanced contrast-free MRA techniques, Toshiba is further expanding the capabilities and safety of MRA imaging.

TSA will have a variety of clinical benefits to improve both diagnostic confidence and patient care and safety. TSA builds upon the pioneering Time-Spatial Labeling Inversion Pulse technique (Time-SLIP) and is especially desirable for patients with compromised circulations and renal flow problems. It features an extremely high temporal resolution and a continually changing inversion pulse time, creating dynamic images showing blood flow in motion.

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Low-intensity MRI takes first scan of a human brain

It takes only a tiny magnetic field to see clear through a person's head, a new study shows. A method called ultra-low field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has captured its first, blurry shots of a human brain, revealing activity as well as structure.

MRI scanners image the human body by detecting how hydrogen atoms respond to magnetic fields. They typically require fields of a few tesla – about 10,000 to 100,000 times stronger than the Earth's magnetic field. The powerful magnets necessary make scanners pricey and also dangerous for people with metal implants.

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MRI scan dye can be deadly for kidney patients

A dye used in millions of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans worldwide can be poison for people with serious kidney problems and cause a debilitating, incurable and sometimes fatal disease called neophrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF).

Dyes based on gadolinium — the magnetic ion blamed for the condition — are safe for most people, said David Seidenwurm, a neuroradiologist with Radiological Associates of Sacramento. But for people with severe kidney problems, the ion can poison the patient by causing collagen to build up in tissues.


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GE Brings Molecular Imaging Into Treatment Planning Arena

GE Healthcare's next-generation volume PET/CT application is stepping beyond helping clinicians diagnose, stage, treat and monitor tumors and other lesions in the body. As demonstrated at today's opening of the 49th annual meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiation and Oncology in Los Angeles, PET VCAR (Volume Computer-Assisted Reading) is equally valuable for Radiation Therapy planning.

"PET VCAR optimizes tumor management, enabling early quantification and understanding of treatment effectiveness for precision treatment planning," said Gene Saragnese, vice president and general manager of Molecular Imaging and CT Business at GE Healthcare. "But it also is being used to measure the effectiveness of that treatment by identifying, delineating and quantifying areas of metabolic activity in PET/CT scans and, through its advanced registration capability, for quick comparison of tumor response over time."

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Dementia Diagnosis By PET Scan

A PET scan (positron emission tomography) that measures uptake of sugar in the brain significantly improves the accuracy of diagnosing a type of dementia often mistaken for Alzheimer's disease, a study led by a University of Utah dementia expert has found.

The scan, FDG-PET, helped six doctors from three national Alzheimer's disease centers correctly diagnose frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and Alzheimer's in almost 90 percent of cases in the study -- an improvement of as much as 14 percent from usual clinical diagnostic methods. FDG stands for fluorodeoxyglucose, a short-lived radioactive form of sugar injected into people during PET scans to show activity levels in different parts of the brain. In Alzheimer's, low activity is mostly in the back part of the brain; in FTD, low activity is mostly in the front of the brain.

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