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Researchers have developed a mathematic formula to predict a woman’s risk of osteoporotic fracture. The equation has proved 75% accurate and will allow physicians to tailor their treatment strategies to help women prevent fractures of fragile bones, according to a study in the October issue of Radiology.

Effective immediately, the Society for Computer Applications in Radiology (SCAR) is changing its name to the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM). The society also announced today that it will relocate to a new headquarters in Leesburg, VA, this summer.

Intracranial hemorrhage is one of the most common causes of acute focal neurological deficit in children and adults.1,2 Early and reliable identification of its age and cause is essential when choosing the correct treatment and estimating the patient's prognosis and outcome. Neuroimaging options include ultrasound, CT, MRI, and digital subtraction angiography. A thorough understanding of hematoma evolution and its appearance on neuroimaging studies is essential for determining the age of the hemorrhage. The radiologist or neuroradiologist should also be familiar with the various causes of intracranial hemorrhage.

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A head-to-head clinical comparison of 3T and 1.5T MRI indicates that the higher field strength produces no better than equivalent results for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease.

Prognostication has become a key feature of cardiac MRI. That role was established in 2003 when Dr. Raymond Kim, Dr. Robert Judd, and their colleagues at Duke and Northwestern universities demonstrated that delayed enhancement MR could reliably differentiate between patients who will benefit from revascularization following myocardial infarction and those who will not.

Researchers at the 2005 SCMR meeting presented documented evidence showing that multislice CT angiography is superior to two leading MR angiography protocols for detecting coronary artery disease.

The 2005 Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance meeting reflected the opportunities and challenges unique to this diagnostic imaging discipline. Cardiac MR's growing professional acceptance helped spur a third consecutive attendance record this year, and the number of scientific papers and posters submitted for presentation rose as well.

Academic medical practitioners no longer consider first-pass stress and perfusion MRI, wall motion, and delayed enhancement imaging as separate tests. During a plenary session at the SCMR meeting, researchers agreed that these sequences generate the highest accuracy for detecting myocardial infarction and assessing myocardial viability when they are performed and analyzed together. The optimal order for performing these tests and interpretation of the results, however, still generate considerable controversy.

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Despite advances in the diagnosis and treatment of rectal cancer, five-year survival rates continue to hover around the 50% mark. For cancers limited to the bowel wall, however, the survival rate climbs to 83%, highlighting the importance of early detection and treatment. Almost all rectal cancers are primary adenocarcinomas, and 90% of them occur after the age of 50.