Space technology may soon help earthbound patients suffering from kidney stones. Scientists are working on ultrasound technology that can not only detect the stones but also push them out of the kidney.

Michael Bailey, PhD, one of the project leaders, summed up the research this way:
We have a diagnostic ultrasound machine that has enhanced capability to image kidney stones in the … read more »

Ultrasound really can be an effective male contraceptive, a North Carolina research team has confirmed. Whether it’s practical remains uncertain.

We reported on the launching of this study in 2010. It built on research done in the 1970s and 1980s by Mostafa Fahim, PhD, of the University of Missouri in Columbia.

The North Carolina researchers found that ultrasound applied to the testes … read more »

About 23 percent of the time, an old-fashioned autopsy comes up with a new diagnosis that was missed by all of modern medicine’s amazing imaging tests and sophisticated laboratory procedures.

So why, ask two experts at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, should we think that the imaging-based virtual autopsy, or “virtopsy,” is ready to replace the traditional direct physical inspection … read more »

Mayo Clinic is building two new proton beam treatment facilities, one in Minnesota and one in Arizona. They exemplify either “what is wrong with American health care today” or an “investment to ensure that [Mayo's] patients have access to proven, effective, safe treatment for serious illnesses.”

Or maybe both. Or neither.

The “what’s wrong” assessment comes from Ezekiel J. Emanuel, MD, PhD, … read more »

A new iron-based MRI contrast agent offers not only the benefit of safety but also a better means of differentiating  between benign and malignant tumors.

University of Pennsylvania engineers coated iron oxide nanoparticles with glycol chitosan, a sugar-based polymer that reacts to acids. The sugar keeps the particles from binding or being absorbed by the body, but this particular formulation allows … read more »

Researchers at Johns Hopkins In-Vivo Cellular and Molecular Imaging Center in Baltimore have begun a breathtaking five-year initiative to detect and treat breast, prostate, and other common cancers at their very earliest stages—when they’re hiding inside cells.

More than $8 million in grants from the National Cancer Institute (part of the National Institutes of Health) are fueling the initiative. It builds … read more »

Medicare paid $12.8 million in questionable reimbursements and $6.6 million in flatly incorrect reimbursements to portable X-ray suppliers in 2009, according to a study by inspector general of the federal Department of Health and Human Services.

The study, released this week, covered providers who travel to nursing facilities, private homes, and other nonclinical locations to provide X-rays of the extremities, pelvis, … read more »

Low doses of ionizing radiation may not carry as much cancer risk as we’ve thought, according to researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California.

Breast-cancer researcher Mina Bissell, PhD, explained:
Our data show that at lower doses of ionizing radiation, DNA repair mechanisms work better than at higher doses. This nonlinear DNA damage response casts … read more »

The delicacy of some crystalline molecules has led to a new X-ray technique that may eventually reduce radiation doses for human patients.

B.C. Wang, PhD, studies molecules. (He’s Ramsey-Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Structural Biology at the University of Georgia in Athens). X-ray crystallography—bombarding molecules’ crystalline forms with X-rays—reveals the position of chemical bonds and other important properties.

However, large molecules, … read more »

Here’s a surprising contention: Medicare has already cut spending on imaging too much.

It comes from the Medical Imaging & Technology Alliance (MITA), a trade group for makers of medical imaging equipment. So perhaps it’s not so surprising.

MITA said in a Wednesday news release that, according to its own analysis of Medicare data, spending on imaging for each Medicare beneficiary has … read more »