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 »

The rare pancreatic tumor that led to the death of business titan Steve Jobs was, as it turns out, one of the most significant incidental findings in imaging history. Doctors noticed it on a CT scan while looking for something else.

The New York Times has been exploring Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson’s new biography of the Apple Inc. CEO who died … read more »

Intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) for prostate cancer patients can cause implanted cardiac devices to malfunction, according to a study presented Wednesday at the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting in Miami Beach, Florida.

The sample size was small, but the devices malfunctioned for 25 percent of the patients in the study who had pacemakers or defibrillators (6 of … read more »

MRI-safe pacemakers? As far as the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine is concerned, all pacemakers are MRI-safe.

OK, we’re exaggerating. But apparently not by much. Cardiologists at Johns Hopkins say they’ve developed a protocol that has allowed safe MRI scans of patients with pacemakers and defibrillators—older devices, not the new MRI-safe models.

A study published in the October 4 issue of … read more »

Erroneous CT scan readings by four British Columbia radiologists in 2010 have so far contributed to at least three deaths and serious continuing harm to the health of several others, the health minister for the Canadian province announced this week.

We’ve written previously about the mess in the province, where an examination of the work of four radiologists eventually involved checking … read more »

Earlier this week, Diagnostic Imaging explored several ways in which MRI machines are becoming more patient-friendly. This comes on the heels, however, of a PLoS ONE research article that indicates they still have a way to go.

Diagnostic Imaging cited three specific improvements:

Extremity scanners, which scan ankles, wrists, and other parts of extremities more efficiently (and more cheaply) than running a … read more »

The use of CT scans to diagnose appendicitis has soared since the 1990s, according to a new study. What the study doesn’t address is whether that’s good or bad for patients.

The numbers are certainly dramatic. The study, published online August 1 in Annals of Emergency Medicine, analyzed a sample of 447,011 U.S. emergency department visits from 1992 through 2006, using … read more »

A prestigious medical organization, asked to analyze the Food and Drug Administration’s “fast-track” approval process for medical devices, took nearly two years to conclude that:

The process is fundamentally flawed and should be scrapped;
Even though it hasn’t actually approved any unsafe or ineffective devices;
And the organization has no specific recommendations for a replacement process.

Can you blame the FDA for responding, in … read more »

A British Columbia woman is suing a former British Columbia radiologist because, she says, his misreading of her CT scan led to the unnecessary removal of part of her colon.

The accused doctor, Mansukhlal Mavji Parmar, MB BCh BAO, helped trigger a widespread, and still ongoing, investigation of radiology practices in the Canadian province. In February, the province’s health services minister … read more »