Ultrasound

Interventional radiologists, like their diagnostic counterparts, remain under pressure as payers ratchet back reimbursements. But they continue to fight on the reimbursement front and see some silver linings in new government programs designed to improve the quality of care.

Posterior fossa anomalies detected on fetal MR imaging should be confirmed with postnatal imaging, according to a study in the June American Journal of Roentgenology. Investigators from the U.S. and Canada found significant discrepancies between fetal and postnatal posterior fossa findings on MRI.

Contrast-enhanced ultrasound for abdominal applications in radiology was first approved in Canada in 2001. Although reimbursement issues have prevented its general dissemination and adoption, ample publications describe the benefits and applications of this exciting and robust technique.

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Short-interval follow-up is most often suggested for women whose diagnostic mammograms are flagged as probably benign. But this second look at 12 months has a low sensitivity for detecting cancer, according to a study in the American Journal of Roentgenology.

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Ultrasound measurement of optic nerve sheath diameter can gauge intracranial pressure in patients who cannot tolerate invasive assessments. Sonography has proved useful in brain-injured pediatric patients, and a recent study confirmed that optic nerve sheath diameter correlates with intracranial pressure in adults with brain injuries.

Liver imaging is benefiting considerably from the improvement of ultrasound systems and sequences dedicated to contrast-enhanced examinations. The use of ultrasound contrast to detect and characterize focal liver lesions is now routine.

The main objective of imaging patients with symptoms suggestive of ovarian lesions is to distinguish benign findings from malignant disease. Masses can be characterized with a variety of noninvasive imaging techniques, including transabdominal and transvaginal ultrasound, CT, and MRI. Each of these modalities has its advantages and limitations.

Ultrasound elastography provides an accurate diagnosis for malignant thyroid nodules about eight out of 10 times, according to Italian researchers. Elastography has previously shown promise in the diagnosis of breast and prostate cancers.

The FDA has eased off on stringent black box warnings that greatly restricted use in the U.S. of microbubble ultrasound media during echocardiography.

Color Doppler sonography should be the first imaging modality for triage of adult patients with suspected acute appendicitis, according to a study from Israel. Findings suggest CT should complement the examination, and only in selected cases.

Portable ultrasound in the emergency room can identify pulmonary embolism in patients having difficulty breathing, allowing for prompt treatment.

MR elastography debuted on Tuesday as a clinical application ready for diagnostic uses in the liver and many diagnostic niches elsewhere in the body.

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Transvaginal ultrasound exams conducted by expert practitioners can replace MR imaging for preoperative staging of endometrial cancer. Researchers conclude that expensive MRIs should be reserved for patients whose ultrasound exams are unclear.

Specific lung ultrasound signs reliably indicate common causes of acute respiratory failure and rapidly differentiate it from similar diseases. More than 90% of patients admitted to university teaching hospital intensive care units with trouble breathing could have been easily diagnosed with lung ultrasound.

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An 85-year-old woman complained of long-term mild abdominal pain. Abdominal examination revealed a palpable mass in the left paraumbilical region.

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Transcranial ultrasound provides a differential diagnosis for parkinsonian syndromes before the disease progresses beyond the very first, nonspecific, clinical signs, according to a new study. Researchers conducting the study say this noninvasive and inexpensive test should become routine, as early diagnosis would allow for disease-specific treatment to start sooner.

Canadian researchers have found that pregnant women who are overweight or obese are more than 10 times more likely than women of normal weight to have their second trimester fetal ultrasound screening recalled due to poor results. Worse yet, a second exam may not improve visualization but instead add only to cost and patient distress.

What’s happening with the American Roentgen Ray Society? Its annual meeting, known mainly for the quality of its refresher course, has become an essential point of coverage for world-class scientific research as well.

Contrast-enhanced ultrasound detected portal vein thrombosis far better than CT in cases complicating hepatocellular carcinoma. While CT found only 68% of thrombi, contrast-enhanced ultrasound identified every one in the study. It also did a far better job of helping determine if they were malignant.

Pairing chemoembolization with radiofrequency ablation improved survival in patients with unresectable hepatocellular cancer, according to a multidisciplinary group based at Shangdong University in Jinan, China. Their study results demonstrated how tumor microarchitecture could be manipulated to boost localized therapy.

Doppler ultrasound shows that diabetic nephropathy may affect the kidneys of pediatric diabetes patients long before clinical indications become evident. Diabetes-related microvascular complications rarely reach clinical stages in childhood, but researchers investigated whether Doppler ultrasound could identify differences in the renal blood flow of children with diabetes compared with normal controls.

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Statistics about the projected increase of cancer rates in the Asia Pacific region are, to put it mildly, thought-provoking. The World Health Organization, for instance, estimates that South-Central Asia, East Asia, and Australasia are likely to experience a rise of between 50% and 75% in cancer occurrence by 2020. Its estimate of 75% to 100% for Southeastern Asia is even more alarming.

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Technique Helps Avoid Biopsies Of Benign Masses