Children exposed to head and neck radiation, whether for treatment of cancer or diagnostic CT scans, face an elevated risk of thyroid cancer for more than five decades after the initial radiation exposure, according to research at the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, New York.

The findings appear in the current issue of Radiation Research. Lead author M. Jacob … read more »

A new technique uses the heat and energy of ultrasound to increase the effectiveness of drugs in treating acute massive pulmonary embolism (commonly known as a blood clot in the lung).

According to a PRWeb news release, Peter Lin, MD, professor of surgery at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, reported last week on the results of a 10-year study … read more »

A biopsy ordered by a radiologist might have lessened tragic brain damage and affected a multimillion-dollar lawsuit—if only the results had gotten to the right people.

Late last month, a jury in Erie County, Pennsylvania, awarded $3.5 million to a classical pianist and his wife for damage the man suffered after doctors at Hamot Medical Center in the city of Erie … read more »

Five regional health systems in Minnesota and the state’s five largest medical payers have launched an initiative designed to reduce the number of unnecessary high-tech diagnostic imaging exams.

At the heart of the plan is a “clinical decision-support tool” called RadPort, from Nuance Communications of Burlington, Massachusetts, that can either be accessed via a Web site or embedded in an electronic … read more »

Thursday’s big news that the National Cancer Institute was halting a test of lung cancer screening methods came as vindication for Claudia Henschke, PhD, MD.

The NCI stopped the National Lung Screening Trial before its scheduled completion because the trial had already shown that low-dose helical CT was a superior screening method to standard chest X-ray. The NCI announced that the … read more »

The older you get, the less you have to worry that any new exposure to radiation might eventually trigger cancer, right?

Not so fast, says a new study published online last week in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. “Overall,” the researchers write, “the weight of the epidemiological evidence suggests that for adult exposures, radiation risks do not generally decrease … read more »

Makena, an expectant mother, doesn’t mind undergoing sonograms several times a week. That’s good for the ultrasound technicians, because Makena is a cheetah. And nobody wants an unhappy patient with big, strong teeth and claws.

Makena, who is 5 years old, is part of a breeding program at San Diego Zoo Safari Park. She submits to the procedures willingly, without sedation … read more »

Diagnostic X-rays of children may increase the risk that the children will develop leukemia, according to a new study by researchers at the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley.

When the researchers examined the medical histories of children with acute lymphoid leukemia (ALL), they found that there was almost twice the chance that the children had been … read more »

Want to get a general radiological checkup? Participate in medical research. A new study reports that in almost 40 percent of research subjects who undergo medical imaging, the radiologist finds something unrelated to the research that may affect the individual’s health.

Researchers from Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, checked the medical records of 1,426 participants in studies conducted in 2004. Each … read more »

By 2020, the demand for radiologists could exceed supply by as much as 16 percent, according to a report by the physician-recruitment firm LocumTenens.com. It’s even possible, the report says, though “there are a lot of x-factors,” that we’ll see a job-growth boom like the one of 10 years ago.

“Retiring radiologists will exacerbate the problem,” the report says, “with 44 … read more »