MRI

An advisory legal opinion from the Department of Health and Human Services in favor of a specialized service to handle the processing of high-tech preauthorization requests for referring physicians has drawn a mixed response among legal and industry authorities.

Last week the FDA posted a recall notice on its website, notifying healthcare providers that the maker of the Nebion HLX-8 Magnetic Resonance Device had made unsupported claims. The marketing folks behind this product apparently believed it possessed quasi-magical powers.

Those of us who recognize our frailties -- the prejudices and biases that creep almost imperceptibly into our decision making -- would welcome a quantifiable means for ensuring that those decisions are best made. Last month, prosecutors successfully convinced a court in Mumbai, India, that a scan that records activity in distinct areas of the brain can be such a measure. On the basis of a “Brain Electrical Oscillations Signature” test, the court convicted and sentenced to life in prison a 24-year-old woman for murdering her fiancé.

Sonography can accurately detect the causes of stump pain in amputees, according to researchers in the U.K. Investigators say ultrasound findings could guide management, help educate patients about their condition, and allow prosthesis design customization.

Radiologists worry about surprise rate cuts and tighter tech regulation but still wield influence over IT and healthcare quality initiatives

MRI’s changing status as an instrument for breast cancer diagnosis and evaluation was apparent last month at the 2008 American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting. One study suggested that MR’s growing popularity for treatment planning may had led to more mastectomies, and another trial added to growing evidence about its ability to identify metastatic lymph nodes.

Evidence that plaque pathophysiology and not just stenosis may be responsible for cardiac and cerebrovascular disease continues to accumulate. Three-D MRI can accurately detect bleeding carotid artery walls, a potentially predictive warning of stroke, according to Canadian investigators.

The deadline for implementation of the EU Physical Agents (Electromagnetic Field) Directive was originally set as April 2008. As this deadline approached, information about the legislation's likely impact on the daily use of MRI was distributed widely.

Radiology and surgery have traditionally been quite separate disciplines, one the very essence of hands-off healthcare, the other unashamedly invasive. Advances in image-guided therapy are now blurring that distinction, according to Prof. Pablo Ros, a professor of radiology at the Hospital de Sant Pau, Autonomous University of Barcelona.

The U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission are pressuring state governments to repeal Certificate of Need laws that have lingered as a way to control healthcare costs by regulating health facility establishment, expansion, and purchase of capital equipment, such as MRI technology and CT scanners.

A Duke University study has established that unenhanced 3T MR imaging can deliver the same diagnostic accuracy as contrast-enhanced 3T MR arthrography of the shoulder, but without the associated pain, radiation, and risk of adverse contrast reactions.

A study involving the imaging histories of more than 200 children with sensorineural hearing loss recommends MRI instead of CT for identifying soft-tissue defects associated with inner ear anomalies.

Potential candidates for accelerated partial breast irradiation may benefit from pretreatment MRI to ensure no cancer is missed, according to a study conducted by Boston-based researchers.

Prostate cancer imaging proponents are advising physicians to follow recent federal recommendations against prostate cancer screening for men over the age of 75, but they say more government attention to care standards could lead to improved diagnosis and treatment.

A survey of academic radiologists’ clinical productivity shows that workload continues to increase, in both exam volume and complexity. Academic department heads could use the survey data to help set staffing levels and evaluate the performance of individual radiologists.

A recent study at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland has confirmed that 3T MRI improves on 1.5T MRI for detecting and characterizing structural brain abnormalities in patients with focal epilepsy.

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in adult women. One woman in 11 will contract the disease during her lifetime. The primary goal of treatment is cure, through surgery either alone or in combination with radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy. Surgical management options include breast conservation, mastectomy, and palliative treatment.

Primary malignant musculoskeletal tumors are an inhomogeneous group of lesions originating from mesenchymal tissues. Soft-tissue sarcomas can derive from fatty tissue (liposarcoma), muscles (leiomyosarcoma, rhabdomyosarcoma), connective tissue (fibrosarcoma), blood vessels (angiosarcoma), and neurogenic tissue (malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor, malignant schwannoma).

Office released a major report on the growth of Medicare Part B imaging services at the same time the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued sweeping rules that target self-referred imaging services.

MR neuroimaging research has found that cognitive processes relating to verbal fluency are compromised in people with insomnia despite the absence of a behavioral deficit. These specific brain function alterations can be reversed, however, through nonpharmacological treatment with six weeks of sleep therapy.

Although both gadobenate dimeglumine and gadodiamide are gadolinium-based agents, the former provides more conspicuous enhancement for imaging of brain lesions, according to results from an international multicenter trial. Findings could lead to further improvements in the management of these patients.

The attention of the medical imaging community looks set to turn to Seoul later in October, when the 12th Asian Oceanian Congress of Radiology will be held. This is the first time the congress has been staged in Korea since its debut event in 1971, and, given the high quality of radiological practice within the country and its strong educational links with the U.S., the conference is bound to attract plenty of interest. The number and expertise of the invited speakers from North America are certainly impressive.

A novel MRI technique that tracks naturally occurring polymers in cartilage can lead to the diagnosis of early-stage osteoarthritis and may lead to better drug treatment and a reduction in the need for joint replacement surgeries.

Susceptibility-weighted MR imaging provides high-resolution, distortion-free blood oxygen level-dependent data for assessment of cerebral veins, blood products, and brain lesions. Currently, however, reconstruction of susceptibility-weighted imaging data is not implemented on all MR systems.

With piles of accumulated evidence demonstrating the ability of multislice CT to diagnose coronary artery disease, researchers are expanding clinical application of the modality to the measurement of myocardial viability following infarction.

Coronary heart disease is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in developed countries.1 Accurate detection of early cardiac disease is of utmost importance for the delivery of appropriate treatment.

The era of postautopsy confirmation of Alzheimer’s disease may be coming to an end. MR imaging could spot signs of brain deterioration predictive of cognitive decline months, even years, before the onset of dementia, according to recent studies performed in Canada, Europe, and the U.S.

Multislice CT angiography should be the preferred choice over MR angiography or duplex ultrasound for initial evaluation of patients with suspected peripheral arterial disease.