Self magazine slams teleradiology in an article posted on the magazine’s Web site and the MSNBC site.

The magazine headline reads “The Hidden Dangers of Outsourcing Radiology.” The subhead elaborates: “That scan of your brain, bones or breasts you got last Tuesday? It might have been read by someone who isn’t a doctor and lives 12 time zones away. If, that … read more »

The official process for measuring microwave radiation from mobile phones greatly underestimates the actual exposure, especially for children, according to a study published online Friday in Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine.

The study says that when a child uses a cell phone, the radiation absorption in the child’s head may be twice as high as an adult’s, and absorption in the skull’s … read more »

As part of the final resolution of a 2007 medical malpractice suit filed by a semiparalyzed Florida woman, a radiologist was dismissed from the suit.

The case involved Sheila Matthews, now 61, of East Naples in southwest Florida. According to the Naples Daily News, in March 2005, she walked to an ambulance she had called because of shortness of breath and … 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 »

A new study claims to have solved the mystery of why MRI, especially with the most powerful machines, often induces vertigo. It also calls into question the results of all functional MRI research on brain activity.

The study, carried out primarily by researchers associated with the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, suggests that powerful MRI magnets interact with natural ionic … read more »

This is so cool it’s almost creepy: Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, reconstructed movies that test subjects had watched, using functional MRI scans to convert brain activity into fuzzy but eerily accurate moving images.

Eventually, we may be able to communicate nonverbally with people silenced by stroke or coma. Paralyzed individuals may be able to use their minds to … read more »

Don’t bother to tell us whether it hurts. We know.

Researchers affiliated with Stanford University have moved a step closer to being able to say that to patients. Using functional MRI and a support vector machine (SVM; a computer model that assigns inputs to one of two possible categories—in this case, pain or nonpain—and that is capable of learning and adapting … read more »

An unpredictable, often tragic injury, thrust into the spotlight by the wars of the past decade, is getting some government attention.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), partnering with the Department of Defense, announced Monday that it will build a central database of brain scans and other information on traumatic brain injuries (TBI). According to an NIH news release, “It will … read more »

Advanced imaging has detected biochemical changes in the brains of cognitively normal people that may indicate risk of Alzheimer’s disease, according to a study published Wednesday in the online issue of Neurology.

Jonathan M. Schott, MD, of the Dementia Research Centre at the University College London Institute of Neurology in England said the study results pointed to the potential benefits of … read more »