Dear Advanced Visualization Insider,
MDCT is typically the imaging method of choice for diagnosing acute pulmonary embolism (PE), but CT pulmonary angiography exams can be time-consuming to read and have a relatively low prevalence of positive results.
Computer-aided detection (CAD) technology, however, can add clinical value in detecting acute PE -- yielding significantly higher sensitivity without negatively affecting specificity, according to research from Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. CAD was beneficial in nearly one-quarter of the cases in the study, contributing to either a correct diagnosis or increased diagnostic confidence in the right diagnosis.
Dr. Rianne Wittenberg presented the research during a scientific session at the 2010 European Congress of Radiology (ECR) in Vienna, Austria, and our coverage of her talk is the subject of this month's Insider Exclusive article. You can access that article before our other members by clicking here.
In other current news from ECR, a breast MRI CAD system that assesses both dynamic and morphological information was found to effectively distinguish between benign and malignant lesions. Also, inexperienced readers in a French study were found to benefit most from the use of breast ultrasound CAD.
Stay tuned to your Advanced Visualization Digital Community for more advanced visualization coverage from ECR in the coming weeks.
In other news, an advanced visualization method for virtual colonoscopy is showing promise for reducing false-positive rates on CAD programs. International editor Eric Barnes has all of the details in his coverage of the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook research, which you can find here.
Also, the powerful combination of CAD and full-field digital mammography (FFDM) was demonstrated convincingly by researchers in Toledo, Spain, who discovered a significant increase in detecting small tumors after installing FFDM and CAD in their multidisciplinary breast unit.
Do you have any interesting images or clips that might be suitable for our AV Gallery? I invite you to submit them by clicking here.
