Diagnostic Reading #25: Five “Must Read” Articles on Medical Imaging
Reading Time: 3 minutes read
New developments in MRI, ultrasound, and CT are in the news.
This week’s articles in Diagnostic Reading include: notification system improves follow-up rates; lower heart rate adds benefits to CCTA; brain stimulation using ultrasound; importance of risk-based cancer screening protocols; and MRI confirms danger of youth sports injuries.
Simple notification system for overdue radiology recommendations bolsters follow-up rates – Health Imaging
A notification system for overdue imaging recommendations bolsters follow-up rates and produces clinically significant diagnoses, according to research published in the American Journal of Roentgenology. Accurately detecting abnormal findings is the radiologists’ main job, but relaying results also is key to timely care. Researchers explained that communication errors can cause delays and ultimately lead to malpractice claims.
Lower heart rate improves CCTA image quality, dose exposure – Diagnostic Imaging
Having a lower heart rate can improve the image quality of a patient’s coronary CT angiography (CCTA), as well as lower the radiation dose used, according to a research letter published in Radiology. During this multi-institutional, multi-national study, researchers demonstrated that, across a wide variety of CT scanners, patients with heart rates lower than 60 beats per minute received these benefits, and results support using beta blockers to help control heart rate for some individuals unless there are contraindications.
New tool activates deep brain neurons by combining ultrasound, genetics – Imaging Technology News
A research team has developed a new brain stimulation technique using focused ultrasound that is able to turn specific types of neurons in the brain on and off and control motor activity without surgical device implantation. This team is the first to provide direct evidence showing noninvasive, cell-type-specific activation of neurons in the brain by combining ultrasound-induced heating effect and genetics, which they have named sonothermogenetics.
Time to consider risk-based breast cancer screening protocols – Healthcare-in-Europe
In the emerging era of personalized medicine, risk-based breast cancer screening protocols may be better than the one-size-fits all approach and it’s time to consider adopting them, an expert stated at the 2021 Society of Breast Imaging/American College of Radiology Breast Imaging Symposium. He discussed the elements of a variety of clinically validated risk assessment models for normal-to-high risk women, and asserted that breast density and genetic variants that are primarily single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) scores are the strongest currently identified risk factors.
MRI shows how head impacts affect brains of young football players – AuntMinnie
A study further confirms that youth football players who experience repeated exposure to head impacts have a higher number of abnormal voxels in brain MRI scans, according to new research published in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics. Some estimates say that high school football players can sustain up to 1,200 impacts in a season and these impacts can have long-term effects, including later-life neurodegenerative diseases.
#diagnosticreading
