MRI

Public policymakers have long sought valid scientific evidence linking lung disease and secondhand smoke. Their wait ended Monday at the 2007 RSNA meeting, when Chengbo Wang, Ph.D., announced clinical trial results using hyperpolarized helium-3 diffusion MRI to make the connection.

The massive American College of Radiology Imaging Network 6666 trial shows that adding ultrasound to the initial screening protocol for high-risk women could help detect 30% more cancers. The cost, however, could be many more needless biopsies of benign lesions.

In a novel approach to cervical spine trauma, researchers have found that changes in diffusion tensor imaging parameters are most marked at the spinal cord injury site and also reflect the severity of cord injury.

New CT perfusion scanning techniques that are safer and faster than older CT protocols could offer a practical imaging alternative to MR perfusion for stroke patients, according to two studies presented at the 2007 RSNA meeting. Findings also emphasize a new trend for widening the window for thrombolysis.

Executives at Siemens Medical Solutions are out to give competitors, including those selling reburbished MRs, a run for their money. Listing below $1 million, the company’s new Essenza MR scanner is the most affordable 1.5T system in the industry.

Research presented at RSNA 2007 bolsters the role of MR imaging for preoperative surgical planning in patients with known breast cancer and in working up the challenging invasive lobular carcinoma.

Diffusion-weighted MR imaging could one day become a routine exam for noninvasive characterization and staging of uterine tumors, replacing unnecessary catheter or surgical biopsies, according to several studies released Sunday at the RSNA meeting.

Of the 6000 scientific abstracts submitted to the RSNA this year, four major areas stand out, according to Dr. Gerald Dodd III, chair of the RSNA’s scientific program committee.

The inability to turn off certain brain regions, rather than decline in the ability to turn them on, could be the clue to diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease, according to Duke University researchers. Findings from a 4T functional MR imaging trial suggest this brain marker, not structural ones such as atrophy, could help diagnosis and management of AD patients.

Published clinical studies are expanding the diagnostic limits of multislice CT and other modalities for cardiovascular applications. A meta-analysis in the November Radiology offers a powerful argument in favor of its use for diagnosing lower extremity disease. Other, more preliminary, studies suggest that multislice and dual-source CT will eventually help evaluate in-stent restenosis and the quantification of left ventricular function. New applications are emerging for cardiac MR, echocardiography, and PET/CT as well.

Researchers have discovered a unique biomarker for neural progenitor and stem cells detectable with 3T proton MR spectroscopy. It noninvasively establishes the presence of the cells and their decreasing prominence with age in the brains of children, adolescents, and adult humans.

Imaging advocates fear the adoption of a bundled approach to Medicare reimbursement for contrast media, radiopharmaceuticals, and the technical component of medical imaging could lead to substantial payment cuts from the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System.

Incidental findings in brain MR imaging of asymptomatic subjects show a high prevalence of low-risk meningiomas and small aneurysms. Researchers suggest a review of management guidelines for such findings, with an eye toward reducing radiological intervention.

Long-standing suspicions about noncontrast T1-weighted MRI’s usefulness as a biomarker for multiple sclerosis have been confirmed in a study showing that hyperintense plaques revealed with the technique are associated with brain atrophy, disability, and an advancing course for the disease.

Independent diagnostic testing facilities have only until the end of the year to dissolve imaging equipment leasing arrangements with referring physicians to comply with new rules in the 2008 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule that becomes effective Jan. 1.

The competition is fierce on the way to Wimbledon-just how fierce has been elucidated by British researchers who found a significant number of spinal abnormalities in otherwise healthy adolescent tennis players.

Despite its widespread use as a tool that provides rapid diagnosis at a relatively low cost without the need for bulky equipment or ionizing radiation, ultrasound faces mounting competition from modalities such as CT and MRI, which combine short acquisition times with the ability to rapidly generate multiplanar and 3D images. That may change with volume ultrasound, a technique that lets clinicians and sonographers scan the patient and rapidly analyze data from a volume of interest.

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.

For the first time, researchers have combined functional and anatomic MR imaging to reveal abnormalities in both physiological states in a well-defined subgroup of schizophrenic patients with chronic auditory hallucinations. With the potential to visually pinpoint abnormalities, MRI could prove useful as a diagnostic and follow-up tool to evaluate treatment for people with the disorder, according to lead investigator Dr. Luis Marti-Bonmati, chief of MR at Dr. Peset University Hospital in Valencia, Spain.

Breast MR is approaching celebrity status. A raft of expert opinions, notably from the American Cancer Society, has established MR in public and professional minds as a leading means to diagnose cancer among patients at high risk and possibly even among patients in the general population.

Three-D reconstructions are routinely used in the imaging of many organ systems. Not only do referring physicians and patients like the volume-rendered images, but radiologists are finding the inclusion of coronal and sagittal reformats imperative to making the most confident diagnoses. The use of advanced imaging over the last year has become important in several organs, mainly the heart/chest (Figure 1) and the abdomen/pelvis.

Mountaineering and climbing have been popular sports for many decades. The recent advent of artificial climbing walls and improved safety equipment have transformed the sport and brought it to a wider audience than ever. Such innovations allow individuals to climb safely in any weather conditions.

A spate of European studies within the last year contributes to the evidence that MRI may soon replace scintigraphy and x-ray to detect bony metastases and soft-tissue involvement.

Of the 6000 scientific abstracts submitted to the RSNA this year, four major areas dominate, according to Dr. Gerald Dodd III, chair of the RSNA's scientific program committee.

The Deficit Reduction Act that went into effect in January pulled the rug out this year from under the vendors of CT equipment and flattened the rebound that makers of MR scanners had hoped for in 2007. That could be good news for anyone looking to buy a new CT or MR scanner in the coming months.

Researchers in Belgium have found that MR elastography is more accurate than a blood test commonly used in the noninvasive staging of liver fibrosis. The study adds weight to clinical literature that suggests MR elastography could replace biopsy.

MRI is the study of choice in the overall evaluation of the temporomandibular joint.1 The modality is reported to be 95% accurate in assessing the position and configuration of the TMJ disc and 93% accurate in assessing osseous changes.2 MRI provides detailed multiplanar evaluation of the soft tissues and osseous structures that form the TMJ, and assessment in various degrees of opening provides an opportunity to evaluate the joint for internal derangement, the most common abnormality that affects it.

The European Commission announced today that it will postpone and amend legislation that would pose a serious threat to the use of MRI in patient care and scientific research.

The application of a scleral buckle (note, this is a procedure, not an implant), or “scleral buckling,” is a surgical technique used to repair retinal detachments. It was first used experimentally by ophthalmic surgeons in 1937. By the early 1960s, scleral buckling had become the method of choice when the development of new materials, particularly silicone, offered surgeons new opportunities for improving their outcomes.

In a kind of YouTube meets “Who Wants to be a Millionaire,” Siemens Medical Solutions is planning a contest to give an MR scanner to a needy community hospital.