all radiology stories

Economic motivation could underlie some ordering of imaging tests

404132862 — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 17:44:40 -0400

A new study by researchers at Institute for Technology Assessment in Massachusetts General Hospital's (MGH) Department of Radiology finds that physicians who consistently refer patients to themselves or members of their own specialty for imaging studies, rather than to radiologists, are more likely to order such studies for a variety of medical conditions. The results suggest that economic motivation could underlie some of the excess referrals.

CT significantly reduces the need for appendectomy

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 06:20:19 -0400

For the study, the researchers analyzed 663 patients who were examined on CT for suspected appendicitis. An appendectomy was performed on 268 of the CT-screened patients. Of these 268 patients, only eight had a negative appendectomy.

Imaging may not be major driver of hospital cost increases

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 06:18:33 -0400

"There have been several news stories and reports from insurers claiming that imaging costs are catching and even surpassing drug costs as major drivers of health care inflation," says Scott Gazelle, M.D., MPH, Ph.D., and an MGH radiologist who is director of the Institute for Technology Assessment. "Those of us who work in imaging believe that its use should be celebrated, since imaging has truly transformed the way we deliver health care. But we also need to understand the value that imaging brings to health care; and when looking at its costs, we need to make sure our analyses are accurate."

Gazelle and co-author Molly Beinfeld, MPH, analyzed billing records for patients admitted to MGH between 1996 and 2002.

Imaging technique tracks tumor escape into lymph nodes

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:31:44 -0400

For doctors as well as patients, detecting metastases can be a notoriously burdensome affair. Often, the only way to see whether a patient's lymph nodes are invaded by cancer cells is to surgically remove and inspect them. In some cases, such as gastric cancer, this can mean several hours of sorting through the nodes in the abdominal cavity before even tackling the primary tumor. Even then surgeons are not sure they are looking in the right place. Now a new imagining technique -- which employs a fleet of tiny magnetic particles -- reveals lymph node metastases that are invisible to other approaches. "You have to understand that the importance of this is tremendous.

Lung imaging method allows visualization of airways

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:30:00 -0400

A new dynamic imaging technique described by Mitchell Albert, Harvard Medical School assistant professor of radiology at Brigham and Women's Hospital; Angela Tooker, MIT graduate student; Kwan Soo Hong, Harvard Medical School research fellow in radiology at BWH; and colleagues in the May 2003 Radiology promises to open new venues in research on lung diseases by creating clear MRI images of lung airways during breathing. In this technique, helium gas is polarized by bombardment with laser-polarized rubidium atoms and maintained in a magnetic field. One liter of the gas mixed with nitrogen is pumped into a bag and rushed to the next room to a patient lying inside an MRI scanner. As the patient breathes in, the MRI scanner records two images per second to create a movie during one breath. The technique has promise for advancing knowledge of an array of lung conditions. Traditional static images do not provide good visualization of the blockages and constrictions of the airways caused by diseases like asthma. "Researchers and physicians have never actually seen the bronchoconstriction and airway closure in images," Albert said, "so they had to guess what they look like."

New 3-D mammography system may improve breast imaging

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:25:42 -0400

Researcher Elizabeth Rafferty of the Massachusetts General Hospital Breast Imaging Service described initial results of a study comparing a new technique, called digital tomosynthesis, to standard mammography. Among the new technique's advantages is a significant reduction in false positive test results. "The overlap of breast structures presents a major challenge for radiologists, both because these tissues can hide cancers and because they produce shadows which mimic a lesion on conventional mammography," Rafferty says. "These false positive studies account for almost 25 percent of the instances when women are recalled for additional imaging from their screening mammograms.

Genetic sonograms may reduce need for amniocentesis

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:24:41 -0400

Radiologist Beryl Benacerraf is a Harvard Medical School clinical professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Benacerraf, a handful of like-minded maternal-fetal ultrasound specialists, and a growing number of older pregnant women believe in clarifying the risk of a genetic abnormality in a fetus by adding a detailed ultrasound known as a genetic sonogram. In skilled hands, the method may pick up about 80 percent of Down syndrome fetuses while reducing the risk for most high-risk women. Benacerraf says "there has to be a better way" than the amniocentesis test routinely used for pregnant women 35 and older.

New radio wave treatment corrects back disorders

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:21:32 -0400

Doctors at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center are using radio waves –- the same energy that sends signals to your car radio -– to gently dissolve small amounts of unwanted disc tissue and relieve the pressure often associated with lower back and upper leg pain. Virtually bloodless and exceptionally precise, nucleoplasty radio wave injection is more like getting a vaccination or epidural steroid injection than traditional open-spine surgery. For patients whose body motion is restricted by a spine disc attack and who can't stand the prospect of a sometimes lengthy and painful convalescence, radio wave injection may be just the answer, says Joshua A. Hirsch, an interventional neuroradiologist and associate professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School.

Radiation limits narrowing of arteries after stent

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:11:33 -0400

The results of a trial directed by the Harvard Clinical Research Institute and the Cardiovascular Data Analysis Center indicate there may be an effective alternative to placement of a stent to prevent artery narrowing after angioplasty. That alternative is intracoronary radiation therapy, or "brachytherapy." The first-of-its-kind trial tested the safety and efficacy of the delivery of iridium-192, a source of gamma radiation, in the prevention of artery narrowing. Richard Kuntz of Harvard Medical School and colleagues found that intracoronary gamma irradiation resulted in significantly less re-narrowing, and thus a significant decrease in the need for additional cardiac procedures. This study appeared in the Jan. 25, 2001, New England Journal of Medicine.

Direct damage from radiation may be passed to neighboring cells

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:12:00 -0400

Cells communicate, organize, share resources, and form direct connections with one another. They also are affected by damage to their neighbors. Research led by John Little of the Harvard School of Public Health shows that cells hit by radiation can send signals to neighboring cells that result in DNA damage. These findings challenge the long-held assumption that radiation harms cells only by direct contact, suggesting that radiation's biological effects are more complex than previously thought.

Fighting prostate cancer with radioactive seeds

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:04:36 -0400

In November 1997, a team of surgeons headed by Anthoy D'Amico, an associate professor of radiation oncology at Harvard Medical School, first used a technique that treats early stages of prostate cancer in a way that, for some patients, may be superior to the usual methods of surgical removal of the gland or seven weeks of external radiation. The team used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to place 100 radioactive seeds, each smaller than a rice grain, into tumors inside a walnut-size prostate gland. Properly placed, the seeds destroy cancer cells. The team has since done more than 140 procedures without any failures or recurrence of cancer. "Patients experience fewer side effects than with ultrasound placement," D'Amico says.

Scans predict Alzheimer's risk

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:08:19 -0400

At present, physicians live with the frustration of not being able to provide much help to people diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Things should change dramatically if the disease, like cancer, can be identified in its earliest stages and treatments begun as soon as possible. Researchers recently have identified telltale brain shrinkage that presages Alzheimer's. Using brain scanning techniques, they distinguished between people considered normal and those with memory problems that progressed to Alzheimer's with 93 percent accuracy. The same brain scans that find the disease could also be used to determine the efficacy of treatments to control it. For example, does a particular drug lessen, or even prevent, brain shrinkage?

New detector may open new window on the universe

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:09:34 -0400

A new receiver is capable of detecting and amplifying very-high- frequency signals with very fine frequency resolution, so it can detect the spectral lines, or chemical fingerprints, of interstellar molecules that emit radio signals at terahertz frequencies -- the highest frequencies ever achieved with any radio receiver. The unique detector of astronomical radiation, developed at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), in Cambridge, Mass., and tested at the Heinrich Hertz Submillimeter Telescope (HHT) on Mount Graham, Ariz., made the first ground-based measurements of radio emission from interstellar molecules in the "terahertz waveband" -- a virtually unexplored part of the astronomical spectrum. The unique combination of the detector, the excellent high dry site and the accurate telescope were all necessary for this milestone in radioastronomy, astronomers say.