 |
| . |
The FDA is notifying healthcare professionals, and in particular, the medical imaging community, about the planned return of CardioGen-82 to the U.S. market following the voluntary recall by the manufacturer, Bracco Diagnostics, on July 25, 2011. The agency has approved revised labeling for CardioGen-82 to include a boxed warning and enhanced testing information to help minimize the risk for exposure to unintended levels of strontium radiation.
With the growth of cardiac imaging, there has been heightened concern about the resulting increased exposure to ionizing radiation. Andrew J. Einstein, MD, PhD, of Columbia University Medical Center and New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City, outlined the currently available research on radiation exposure in cardiac imaging in the Feb. 7 issue of the
Journal of the American College of Cardiology and concluded that while strong data specifically addressing the risks of cancer from cardiac imaging don’t exist, increased risks can be projected from studies involving similar levels of radiation exposure.
Although post-imaging use of cardiac catheterization and medical therapy increased in proportion to the degree of abnormality findings, noninvasive testing had only a modest impact on clinical management of patients referred for clinical testing, according to the SPARC trial published in the Jan. 31 issue of the
Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
GE Healthcare has paid the U.S. $30 million, plus interest, to settle allegations that a company it acquired in 2004, Amersham Health, had violated the False Claims Act by causing Medicare to overpay for Myoview, a radiopharmaceutical used in certain cardiac diagnostic imaging procedures, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Covidien is planning to spin off its pharmaceuticals business into a standalone public company. The unit supplies generators used to produce technetium-99m, a medical isotope, and offers an integrated system of diagnostic contrast media in prefilled syringes and injectors.
Toshiba’s showcase at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) in Chicago Nov. 27 to Dec. 2 included its new Vantage Titan 1.5T MR series and Aplio 300 and 500 ultrasound systems. Rounding out its lineup of new offerings were its Adaptive Iterative Dose Reduction 3D (AIDR 3D) software, and Dual Energy and Myocardial Perfusion functional-CT applications.
Imaging—often the bedrock for first diagnosing and then treating cardiac disease —remains challenging and inconsistent in women.
Reducing the contrast media dose in coronary CT angiography (CTA) limits risks while not significantly affecting the quality of images, according to a study published in the October issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology.
DENVER—As the future model of healthcare reform is not yet set in stone, those working in nuclear cardiology must first get a grip on how to modify the current system to charge less per service rather than compromising care with less volume, William A. Van Decker, MD, professor of Medicine at Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia, said during a presentation Sept. 9 at this year’s American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC) scientific sessions.
DENVER—As important players within the medical community work to reduce unnecessary radiation exposure from medical imaging, integrating protocols and strategies, such as shielding, can help reduce dose, James A. Case, PhD, of Cardiovascular Imaging Technologies in Kansas City, said during a presentation Sept. 9 at the 16th annual American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC) meeting.
The Pediatric and Adult Interventional Cardiac Symposium (PICS-AICS) in Boston will showcase Toshiba America Medical Systems x-ray and ultrasound systems during three live interventional cases.
Nationwide trends show imaging utilization has flattened, and yet scrutiny over the appropriate use of imaging is just gearing up. With pressure on physicians growing, two chief mechanisms for driving appropriate use are coming to the fore—clinical decision support (CDS) and radiology benefits managers (RBMs).
Siemens Healthcare sponsored a series of symposia and showcased its most recent CT scanner and image interpretation software at this year’s meeting of the Society of Cardiovascular CT (SCCT) in Denver, July 14-17.
High-pitch, dual-source CT scanners may enable physicians to sustain diagnostic accuracy while allowing up to seven-fold reductions in pediatric radiation dose, according to a study presented this weekend at the Society of Cardiovascular CT (SCCT) in Denver.
Health IT company TeraRecon showed iNtuition advanced visualization and cloud products at this year’s scientific meeting of the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (SCCT) in Denver, July 14-17.
Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children in Orlando, Fla., has installed Toshiba’s InfinixTM CF-i bi-plane x-ray system along with Toshiba’s CAT-880B catheterization table in the hospital’s new hybrid suite.
Data from the Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Nuclear Medicine Laboratories suggest that while non-compliance with reporting standards is found in the majority of U.S. nuclear cardiology laboratories, facilities that participate in the accreditation process demonstrate an increase in compliance over time. The retrospective study was published online June 19 in the
Journal of Nuclear Cardiology.
Toshiba America Medical Systems has received FDA approval for a software upgrade to its MR VirtualExplorer workstations, which offer enhanced post-processing functionality and MR flow and velocity measurements for the cardiac package.
Rcadia Medical Imaging has been granted four U.S. patents for the company’s COR Analyzer System.
