MRI

Interest in multimodality imaging shows no sign of abating. New tracers are opening up the range of clinical applications, while novel technological solutions are paving the way for yet more modality marriages, according to speakers at Sunday’s special focus session on hybrid imaging.

Days spent sitting in lecture theatres and seminar rooms, long hikes from scientific sessions to the exhibition hall with a briefcase under one arm and a weighty conference bag on the other shoulder, evenings hunched over a laptop putting the final touches to the next day’s presentation… It could be argued that attending ECR is a recipe for backache.

The controversial topic of nephrogenic systemic fibrosis drew a large crowd to a special focus session at the ECR. Delegates queued to quiz speakers about their recommendations for avoidance of the condition, ensuring a lively panel discussion.

Novel concepts and approaches are essential to speed up MRI examinations. Furthermore, pushing speed limits does not just mean doing the same things quicker -- new application areas must also be found.

Cardiac imaging is at a crossroads, according to next year’s ECR president. He’s not alone in holding such an opinion.

Marathon runners 50 years or older may face a higher than expected risk of sudden cardiovascular accidents. MR imaging with late gadolinium enhancement may help identify these athletes in time to keep them from potentially deadly episodes, according to German researchers.

Some tantalizing glimpses into future clinical applications of functional MR and PET imaging were provided at Friday’s New Horizons session.

The relationship between gadolinium-based contrast media for MRI and nephrogenic systemic fibrosis may be more nuanced than previously thought, according to several studies presented Friday at the 2008 ECR.

To the listener, jazz improvisation is an aural flight of fancy, borne aloft by a musician’s on-the-spot skill and imagination. But functional MRI results show the brain actually follows a grounded process of activation and deactivation during these spontaneous musical riffs, according to researchers from the National Institutes of Health and Johns Hopkins University.

A keen sense of anticipation is building up among ECR 08 delegates, as the deadline approaches for the grand opening of the Technical Exhibition on Friday afternoon.

Cardiac MR codes grant a victory despite continued Medicare ban on blood flow measurement payment

3T MRI enhances knee osteoarthritis management

CMS stirs up hornet’s nest with threat to disallowan option for local Medicare coverage decisions and prohibit cardiac CT angiography for all but trial patients

Cutting CT usage and radiation without over-reliance on MRI proves to be a tricky business

SSFP serves as good start to abdominal MR exams

Sensors glean information from radiofrequency ID chips embedded in labels of contrast bottles

Functional MRI can identify brain activity patterns unique to people with autism spectrum disorders, according to a study published in February. Findings suggest that fMRI-based measurements could improve the diagnosis and treatment of these conditions.

Results of a much-anticipated study gauging tissue plasminogen activator’s impact on acute stroke patients with MRI-diagnosed penumbra mismatch suggest it is effective up to six hours after the onset of stroke and its administration could lead to improved clinical outcomes in some patients.

Several new resources offer radiologists, nephrologists, and other clinicians answers to many questions associated with nephrogenic systemic fibrosis and gadolinium-based MRI contrast.

Women with Paget’s disease of the nipple can be more assured that MRI will detect otherwise hidden malignancies, leading to opportunities for breast conserving therapy, following research from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

A cardiac MRI study measuring the risk of death and myocardial infarction from surgically induced myocardial damage bolsters a growing argument encouraging clinicians to use caution when deciding to revascularize asymptomatic heart patients.

Conventional static MR angiography techniques create high-spatial-resolution structural studies but fail to image physiological information inherent in the delivery of blood or contrast. MR scanner gradient enhancements now enable repetitive data capture over time in the attempt to depict vascular dynamics and physiology in a method similar to that routinely used with conventional catheter x-ray angiography.

Oxford University researchers have established that aortic regurgitation fraction, measured with cardiac MR, accurately singles out patients who need aortic valve replacement surgery.

With help from navigational MRI, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco have assembled the largest composite map of the brain’s language sites ever to appear in the medical literature. They found far greater variability in the location of these sites than other models of language organization suggest.

MR imaging is helping radiologists and surgeons plan and monitor a novel surgical procedure developed to treat stress urinary incontinence.

U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq with mild traumatic brain injuries may benefit from preliminary research suggesting that diffusion tensor imaging can identify patients most likely to face long-term cognitive and behavior problems.

Techniques destined to improve the surgical response to aortic valve surgery, 3T whole-heart coronary MR angiography assessments approaching the accuracy of multislice CTA, definitive diagnoses for previously unexplained heart failure, and improved risk assessments are among the clinically relevant themes that will be addressed Feb. 1 to 3 at the 2008 Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance in Los Angeles.

An exam that combines 3T MR imaging with clinical assessment could speed up the management of patients with suspected degenerative arthritis of the knee. Disease biomarkers could be identified in half the time than is currently possible or less, according to researchers.

Delayed treatment outcomes compare with early CT thrombolysis if diffusion-perfusion mismatch is present