Nearly half of CT scans ordered for patients presenting with dental infections are unnecessary, according to work published in the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, exposing patients to excess costs and physical risk where a more low-impact exam would have been sufficient.

It’s well established that widely used CPAP devices help give a good night’s rest to people with obstructive sleep apnea. Now an MRI-based study has shown the breathing assistance provided by continuous positive airway pressure also increases blood flow to, and blood volume in, the brain. 

A preliminary study published in Academic Radiology March 15 suggests dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) can add value to the diagnosis of acute pancreatitis (AP) while subverting the use of perfusion CT, potentially paving the way for more irradiation-free analysis.

Compared to using standard or full-field digital mammography (FFDM), administering mammograms with digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) reduces the risk of benign biopsies while maintaining a favorable cancer detection rate, according to research out of the U.K.

Google’s AI research group has shown that deep-learning algorithms can fine-tune ophthalmologists’ diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy on retinal fundus photographs, according to a study slated for publication in Ophthalmology. In the study, the physicians using the algorithm bested both AI alone and unassisted physicians on accuracy.

Researchers can more accurately and comprehensively study the brain with a novel concept known as diattenuation imaging (DI)—a neuroimaging method that allows scientists to measure the polarization-dependent attenuation of light throughout different parts of the brain—according to a study published in Scientific Reports.