MRI

The first brain images produced simultaneously with a prototype MR/PET scanner were shown at the Siemens Medical Solutions booth and in a scientific session in Berlin. The device, currently in development at a Siemens lab, integrates a PET detector into the bore of a 3T scanner.

Safety concerns that restrict the use of MR scanners to field strengths below 8T may not be warranted, based on research results presented May 24 in Berlin.

Preliminary studies presented Tuesday at the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine meeting in Berlin gave radiologists a glimpse of future imaging practices for cancer patients: a molecular nuclear imaging test to assess the extent of hypoxia and functional MRI to monitor the response of head and neck carcinoma to treatment.

MR-guided biopsies at 3T are showing great promise in prostate cancer because of their speed and high tumor detection rate in patients with rising PSA levels and previous negative biopsies, according to a leading research team from the Netherlands. They also do well in patients who have had previous radiotherapy sessions.

A novel low-field electromagnetic MR scanner has the potential to deliver high-quality images, even in the presence of metal implants, and can do so for radically less than the cost of conventional superconducting magnets.

Researchers in the U.K. have used functional MR imaging to show that patients with diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) respond differently to heat and pain stimulation compared with diabetic patients without peripheral neuropathy.

Before the dawn of political correctness, there was a time when girls were made of sugar and spice and everything nice, and boys were made of snips and snails and puppy dog tails. Now, functional MRI is confirming that boys and girls really don't think alike. Brain structures and functions that facilitate intelligence in girls are different for boys.

The use of sensitivity encoding and a gradient echo sequence in dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) perfusion imaging at 3T leads to fewer artifacts and better diagnostic quality, according to award-winning research from Denmark.

The differing interests of clinical and basic science researchers are apparent in the work of the finalists for Young Investigator Awards at this year’s ISMRM/ESMRMB meeting.

Preliminary studies presented Tuesday gave radiologists a glimpse of future imaging practices for cancer patients: a molecular nuclear imaging test to assess the extent of hypoxia and functional MRI to monitor the response of head and neck carcinoma to treatment.

Breast MRI may be particularly beneficial as a screening tool for Asian women, and its improved sensitivity and specificity are boosting cancer detection rates, according to a Taiwanese poster presentation.

A Georgetown University researcher has established a link between block time and per-click leasing arrangements and physician self-referral for high-tech imaging billed to a large healthcare insurer in California.

More is better and all but inevitable in medical imaging. In CT, more means slices. In MR, it’s channels for receiving radiofrequency signals. These currently number 32 on the most advanced commercially available systems. But a replacement for that benchmark is in the works.

Before the dawn of political correctness, there was a time when girls were made of sugar and spice and everything nice, and boys were made of snips and snails and puppy dog tails. Now, functional MRI is confirming that boys and girls really don't think alike. Brain structures and functions that facilitate intelligence in girls are different for boys.

Whole-body diffusion-weighted MRI has been introduced to complement and possibly compete against whole-body FDG PET and whole-body anatomical MRI for staging cancer metastasis.

Functional MR scans have confirmed that levels of brain function are low or nonexistent in autistic patients viewing stimuli designed to provoke emotional activity, according to studies presented at the International Meeting for Autism Research held in early May in Seattle.

Playing off the continuously moving table built into TimCT, Siemens Medical Solutions proclaimed “Tim (Siemens’ total image matrix) is on the move” at the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine meeting in Berlin. The company is featuring clinical results from its seven luminary installations of the technology in MR angiography and central nervous system imaging.

Volumetric and highly specialized imaging techniques will expand the clinical horizons of MR, according to GE Healthcare. Technologies that improve the speed of data acquisition and processing will make them practical.

Toshiba Medical Systems Europe is going toe-to-toe with the established high-end vendors at 1.5T during the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine meeting in Berlin. Its high-performance Vantage Atlas MR, shown several months earlier at the RSNA meeting as a work-in-progress, became a commercial reality with the first system installed and operating in March at a hospital in a Paris suburb and another more recently at an outpatient facility in Las Vegas.

An Emory University researcher has established the diagnostic power of a simple contrast-enhanced MRI protocol that informs surgeons about the presence and extent of hepatocellular cancer in cirrhotic livers that are scheduled for transplantation.

Within two weeks this month, Berlin will have played host to two major and one very small radiological meeting. The German Roentgen Society has just left Berlin’s International Congress Center, and the combined International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM)/European Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and Biology (ESMRMB) is gathering. At the end of this week, the 25th anniversary meeting of the European Magnetic Resonance Forum (EMRF) will take place at Cecilienhof Castle in Potsdam, some 20 km away.

Unlike tests that provide thresholds such as good or bad cholesterol levels, MR scans are open to interpretation. Early steps toward quantitation have focused on measuring tumor size and volume as indicators of cancer progression or patient response to therapy. Philips is going further.

The differing interests of clinical and basic science researchers are apparent in the work of the finalists for Young Investigator Awards at this year’s ISMRM/ESMRMB meeting.

No topic can dominate a conference as dynamic as the annual meeting of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. But with many experts chiming in on nephrogenic systemic fibrosis, the subject will be a focus of the society’s jointly sponsored conference with the European Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and Biology starting Monday in Berlin.

A review of the current literature reveals a difference of opinion regarding whether to screen diabetic patients with CT and an inherent flaw with hybrid SPECT/CT scanners resulting in misregistered images. Researchers also optimized a contrast protocol for the triple rule-out procedure and advise echo studies when mitral valve calcification is found on chest CT.

Most orthopedic implants are made from nonferromagnetic materials and, therefore, tend to be acceptable for patients undergoing MRI examinations. In vitro testing conducted at 1.5T and 3T has verified the safe aspects of orthopedic devices with regard to magnetic field interactions (see www.MRIsafety.com for a summary of this information).

Most U.S. breast specialists are performing contrast-enhanced breast MRI, albeit at a fairly low volume, according to a survey presented today at the American Roentgen Ray Society meeting in Orlando. About one-third of facilities performing breast MRI do not offer MRI-guided biopsies as well, however.

Three-D MR imaging has led to new insights concerning the relationship between dysfunctional gray matter and the physiological effects of lithium therapy for bipolar disorders. The findings were reported in April in an online version of the journal Biological Psychiatry.

Practitioners can choose either vertebroplasty or kyphoplasty to treat vertebral compression fractures until a prospective trial comparing the two techniques says otherwise, according a multisociety position statement in the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology. The statement does not fully address the economic impact of each treatment choice.

Lower costs, speedier recovery, and reduced pain give uterine artery embolization an edge over surgery for fibroid treatment, according to a multicenter trial that examined the relative merits of the two methods.