Women who undergo radiation therapy for cancer as children run a greatly increased risk that their own children will be stillborn or die shortly after birth, according to a report in the journal The Lancet.

John D. Boice Jr., ScD, and Lisa B. Signorello, ScD, both of the International Epidemiology Institute in Rockville, Maryland, and the Division of Epidemiology at Vanderbilt … read more »

New federal-government data on Medicare patients’ chest and abdominal CT scans, MRI scans for lower back pain, and mammograms have stirred up scrutiny of some hospitals’ practices (as intended) as well as controversy, especially about so-called “double CT scans.”

The data could have big financial implications for health-care providers.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released information … read more »

Who should get whole-body MRI (WB-MRI)?  Patients with diabetes, rheumatic diseases, primary benign bone tumors, bone-marrow diseases, malignant melanoma, and breast or colorectal cancer. Who shouldn’t? Patients who just want a general health screening.

So concludes a group of German researchers who undertook “a selective literature review on recent technical innovations in the field of WB-MRI and the clinical uses of … read more »

We’ve been rounding up some of the studies introduced in San Diego last week at the American Roentgen Ray Society’s annual meeting. Let’s wrap up our miniseries by focusing on the abdomen and pelvic area:

FDG-PET/CT can help confirm a suspected recurrence of colorectal cancer at an early stage, say researchers at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, a cancer center in … read more »

Abdominal aortic calcification (AAC), or plaque, on abdominal CT scans predicts “obstructive coronary disease and all-cause mortality, and the absence of AAC is a predictor of no obstructive coronary disease,” according to information presented March 14 at the American College of Cardiology 2010 Scientific Sessions, and as reported in TheHeart.org.

“Multivariate analysis showed that AAC adds incremental prognostic information over clinical variables, … read more »

Pneumoperitoneum must be diagnosed promptly when it occurs, which is often abruptly and without warning.

Author: Stephen R. Baker, MD. Special Presentation for Practical Reviews in Radiology

Other Signs of Free Air on Radiography

This third section of the review on diagnosing pneumoperitoneum considers supine plain film signs of abdominal free air outside the right upper quadrant.

In the anterior paramedian superior position of … read more »

Pneumoperitoneum must be diagnosed promptly when it occurs, which is often abruptly and without warning.

Author: Stephen R. Baker, MD. Special Presentation for Practical Reviews in Radiology

Signs of Free Air on Radiography

The best place to look on plain films for findings of pneumoperitoneum is in the right upper quadrant, because the homogeneous shadow of the liver affords an excellent background upon … read more »

Pneumoperitoneum must be diagnosed promptly when it occurs, which is often abruptly and without warning.

Author: Stephen R. Baker, MD. Special Presentation for Practical Reviews in Radiology

The diagnosis of pneumoperitoneum or free air is a crucial diagnosis. Free air can be caused by a number of serious medical conditions, and appear in a number of different locations depending upon the underlying … read more »

Monitoring Hepatocellular Carcinoma Using CT and MRI

Chemoembolization for treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma improves survival, converts nonsurgical lesions to surgical lesions, and acts as a bridge to transplant.

Abdominal imaging, such as contrast-enhanced CT or MRI, is the most feasible mode of monitoring for tumor viability, but the effectiveness is not well known.

To accurately check for sensitivity and specificity, comparison of radiologic … read more »

The objective of a recent study was to assess the frequency and cause of hepatic surface
nodularity in patients with fulminant hepatic failure. … read more »