Ultrasound

Siemens plans to commercially launch a new member of its Sonoline “G” family of ultrasound scanners by early May. The G40 entry-level color system will primarily target physician offices and community hospitals in the U.S. The niche will expand in Europe and Asia to include midsized hospitals.

So far this year, the regulatory agency has cleared 53 radiological devices, 18 more than the number cleared in the first two months of 2004. Last year’s performance is significant in that the FDA cleared more devices (349) than in any year since SCAN began keeping records of FDA clearances in 2000.

Although radiologists recognize ultrasound's value for the evaluation and diagnosis of musculoskeletal conditions, most prefer to use MR imaging in their daily practice, according to a recent survey.

Specialists such as rheumatologists, physiatrists, sports medicine physicians, and orthopedic surgeons increasingly use ultrasound in their clinical practices. But most radiologists find reassurance in their firm grip on musculoskeletal MR imaging. A number of them fear, however, that in forfeiting musculoskeletal ultrasound they risk losing musculoskeletal imaging altogether.

Most musculoskeletal radiologists prefer to use MRI in their daily practice even though they recognize the value of ultrasound to evaluate and diagnose many MSK conditions, according to results of a survey presented at the 2004 RSNA meeting.

Vendors got off to a better than usual start with the FDA this year, clearing 28 devices through the 510(k) process. This was the second highest number of devices cleared by the agency during January in six years. The month was overshadowed only by January 2003, when the industry earned 29 clearances.

Mercury Computer Systems has emerged from the shadows of medical imaging with a portfolio of advanced processing products and services. The company, which previously served mostly as a supplier of 2D imaging components to major OEMs, has begun shopping 3D and 4D products around the imaging industry. These products vary from software only to software-hardware combinations and are designed to perform critical functions in diagnostic and interventional products, as well as PACS.

The need to deliver as little radiation as possible to patients was evident during a Monday scientific session on CT imaging of the urinary tract. Researchers presented studies that ranged in dose from 20 mAs to 200 mAs. Those on the high end were sure to be grilled.

Cedara is unveiling this week a CAD system designed for ultrasound. The Canadian software developer is exhibiting the new technology at the European Congress of Radiology in Vienna as part of an extensive offering of PACS tools addressing orthopedic planning, digital mammography screening, 3D, multislice CT, and PET/CT. The ECR is the first major exhibit of Cedara’s technologies since the company announced Jan. 18 its planned acquisition by Merge Technologies.

The ECR hosted the unveiling of Philips’ latest high-performance ultrasound system, the HD (High Definition) 11. The company launched the system commercially in mid-February as a state-of-the-art alternative for budget-strapped healthcare facilities.

While exploration of Mars and Saturn accounts for most of the news from outer space these days, astronauts aboard the International Space Station have quietly published the results of a shoulder ultrasound exam performed in zero gravity.

Chronic pot smokers may experience problems with thinking or remembering even after abstaining, and decreased cerebral blood flow may be the cause, according to researchers at the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Italian imaging systems manufacturer Esaote is planning a radical change in the way its ultrasound scanners handle acoustic information. The Genoa-headquartered company, part of the Bracco group, is preparing to swap a high-tech silicon-based transducer for its conventional ceramic-based technology. The move, scheduled to start in spring 2006, could make Esaote the first ultrasound manufacturer to abandon the decades-old method of converting acoustic waves into images with piezoelectric crystals.

The HD11 ultrasound system launched worldwide in mid-February by Philips Medical Systems offers a state-of-the-art alternative for budget-strapped healthcare facilities. The company is targeting customers who have been holding off on the purchase of sonography systems for five to seven years or settling for remanufactured platforms from third-party dealers.

CT is moving beyond detection and quantification of coronary artery calcium to grading of coronary stenoses, identifying not only vulnerable plaques but, more important, vulnerable patients. Yet its ultimate role in predicting risk of cardiac events remains unclear.

Exposing a fetus to ionizing radiation is never a good idea, but it can be necessary to diagnose potentially live-threatening gastrointestinal and genitourinary conditions during pregnancy.

The industry ended the calendar year with a flurry of FDA clearances, easily topping last year’s total and establishing a new high for the decade.

No other company has done what GE has done: The merger of its medical systems unit with British pharmaceutical giant Amersham combined a multimodality maker of imaging equipment with the manufacturer of contrast media.

A high-resolution ultrasound-based portable device will help physicians calculate bone loss in space travelers, according to researchers at NASA’s National Space Biomedical Research Institute. While focused on space-related health issues, NSBRI findings may translate into help for earth-bound patients with similar conditions.

VitalWorks changes name, completes medical division saleIT developer VitalWorks has completed the sale of its medical division to Cerner for $100 million in cash. The company announced Nov. 15 a definitive agreement to sell the division, following its decision to focus on radiology IT systems. With the deal now finished, the company has changed its name to Amicas and moved its headquarters to the Boston digs of this PACS vendor, which VitalWorks acquired in late 2003.

Ultrasound is incomparable in its niche as a safe, cost-effective, and portable imaging technique. Nevertheless, standard 2D ultrasound suffers because its display of anatomy lacks reproducibility and precision. Unlike CT and MR, which produce uniform sequential pictures of the anatomy wherever and whenever they are done, ultrasound examinations differ from clinic to clinic, operator to operator.

Advanced computer modeling and artificial intelligence algorithms allow physicians treating prostate cancer to zero in on active tumor cells by mapping MR spectroscopy data onto ultrasound therapeutic images.

In a major breakthrough, researchers in Austria have developed an ultrasound-guided technique to repair the urinary tract of patients with urinary incontinence by injecting stem cells harvested from the patient's own body. They found that almost every patient had been cured one year after the stem cell treatment.

A new shared services system built around an advanced processing chip was released jointly at the RSNA meeting by TeraRecon and Fukuda-Denshi.

If ever I undergo an imaging examination of my hands and wrists, the radiologist will need to know that increased fluid in my second and fifth flexor sheaths is probably quite normal because I am a regular typist.

Three- and four-dimensional ultrasound systems have generated stunning pictures, especially of the fetal face, and proffered the tantalizing prospect of offline image reconstruction. Early systems got a lukewarm reception, largely because they lacked wide clinical application, flexibility in image processing, and productivity-conscious tools. But volumetric ultrasound displayed at the RSNA meeting demonstrated the maturation of the technology with new systems for routine general radiology and for imaging complex anatomy and pathology, as well as postprocessing enhancements for presenting and evaluating data in multiple planes and user-friendly, push-button data interrogation.

Preliminary findings from a national trial of ultrasound as a screening tool in patients at high risk for breast cancer shed light on key variables that influence radiologist interpretive performance.

Although still in research stages, freehand 3D ultrasound shows promise in guiding surgery and radiotherapy in the clinical setting, according to researchers at the University of Cambridge in the U.K.

Patients with uterine fibroids have a new treatment option, which uses MR to guide a high-power ultrasound beam that heats and destroys fibroid tumors. The ExAblate 2000 technology was approved by the FDA in October and showcased at the 2004 RSNA meeting.