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ATLANTA -- Diabetic patients would be the most likely candidates for early coronary artery disease (CAD) screening via imaging testing because this patient population is considered at high risk for myocardial infarction or cardiac death, said Gary Heller MD, director of cardiology at Hartford hospital in Hartford, Conn., during a session yesterday at the American College of Cardiology (ACC) annual conference.
Image analysis and interpretation company Definiens has released its LymphExpert Version 2.0 for sale in Europe after receiving the CE Mark approval.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), in a Feb. 26 final decision memorandum, proposed that “the available evidence is sufficient to determine that NaF-18 PET imaging to identify bone metastasis of cancer to inform the initial antitumor treatment strategy or to guide subsequent antitumor treatment strategy after the completion of initial treatment, is reasonable and necessary” through coverage with evidence development.
Written by Mary C. Tierney
Concern for imaging-based patient radiation dose continues its surge. Recent patient radiation overexposure cases in the U.S., multiple studies relating CT scans to higher incidences of cancer and extensive media reporting on radiation exposure have given the issue of radiation exposure during imaging exams an increasingly high profile.
IBA (Ion Beam Applications) will supply a proton therapy system to the ProCure proton therapy center in Somerset, N.J., and the center is expected to treat its first patient in 2012.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) convened a panel Thursday to identify ways to increase the use and quality of colorectal cancer screening in the U.S.
BioServe and Fox Chase Cancer Center have aligned to provide greater access to repository of oncology biomaterials to overcome a major 'bottleneck' in cancer research programs.
Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Medical School have built targeted nanoparticles that can cling to artery walls and slowly release medicine, which could be an alternative to drug-eluting stents in some patients with cardiovascular disease, according to research published in the Jan. 18 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
A whole-body PET/CT scan can detect cancer in patients with related neurologic complications more accurately than other commonly used tests, according to a study published online Jan. 11 in Archives of Neurology.
Gamma Medica-Ideas has signed an agreement with Mayo Clinic In Rochester, Minn. to develop and commercialize a suite of molecular breast imaging technologies invented by a team of Mayo physicians and scientists.
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Areva will be constructing a facility which will produce medical-grade lead-212 for anticancer treatments on its Bessines site in France.
PETNET Solutions, a subsidiary of Siemens Medical Solutions, is preparing to distribute NaF-18 (sodium fluoride-18) through its network of 47 PET radiopharmacies in the U.S. in support of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) memorandum to allow for coverage with evidence development of NaF-18 PET imaging.
“Ultrasound is the established modality of choice to evaluate the female pelvis, so why do patients with pelvic masses or pain get a CT scan? In my opinion, doing a CT scan first for female patients with lower abdominal pain is dangerous and wasteful, a drain of much-needed healthcare dollars,” wrote Beryl Benacerraf, MD, in an editorial published in the March issue of the Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine.
Microbubbles conjugated to small peptide-targeting ligands can provide ultrasound imaging signals allowing researchers to visualize tumor activity at the molecular level and show its progression, according to research published in the March issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.
Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands and the VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands have signed an agreement to jointly research new multimodality imaging solutions aimed at improving the early detection and treatment of cancer and neurological and cardiovascular diseases.
According to an opinion article published in the February issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology, attention to radiation safety in the field of diagnostic radiology has recently increased, and yet, even at low levels, radiation can still present harm to the patient.
The first Cesium-131 (Cs-131) implant for the treatment of colorectal cancer was performed by doctors at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City on Oct. 10, 2009, and the patient had no evidence of cancer recurrence or any side effects that can be attributed to the Cs-131 seed implant at the last follow-up visit, according to IsoRay.
A randomized biomarker-stratified design, which uses the biomarker to guide analysis but not treatment assignment, provides a rigorous assessment of the utility of a potential biomarker for guiding therapy, according to a commentary published online Jan. 14 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Radiofrequency ablation can possibly alleviate the intensity of pain brought on by bone metastases, according to a study published online Jan. 4 in Cancer.
Doses of radiation from commonly performed CT scans vary widely, appear higher than generally believed and may contribute to an estimated tens of thousands of future cancer cases, according to two studies in the Dec. 14/28 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.
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The use of health IT to reduce rehospitalizations will be welcome but also disruptive, said Stephen Jencks, an independent consultant in healthcare safety during a Feb. 24 webinar on the potential use of health IT to mitigate rehospitalizations, sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
During the Health IT Standards Committee meeting on Feb. 24 in Washington, D.C., the Clinical Operations Workgroup sought to gather comments on proposed recommendations on implementation specifications for content exchange, vocabulary and code set standards for the Interim Final Rule of meaningful use.
In 2006, the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH), a branch of the FDA, began examining the number of medical device reports they received. Over the past two years, the number of submitted reports has increased, sparking a demand for the CDRH to make a move to electronic reporting.
A new hospital breaking ground usually isn’t breaking news. But the vision of patient care at one new facility, tentatively named Palomar Medical Center West (PMC West), is currently illegal under California state law.