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 »

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 »

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 »

How do you react to the news that a 100-year-old woman has just had her first mammogram? Boo or cheer?

Robert Smith, PhD, was appalled at a loud cheer when an announcement at a medical meeting heralded just such a milestone. “Several of us were just shaking our heads in disbelief,” he said, “because it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to … 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 »

Heart Check America, a multistate chain that offers full-body CT scans and other “preventive imaging,” suffered the latest in a series of legal blows last week when Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan sued the company.

The attorney general accused owner Sheila Haddad and manager David Haddad, her son, of using “unfair and deceptive business practices” to pressure customers into 10-year screening … read more »