Dear AuntMinnie Insider,
How do you use virtual colonoscopy to screen residents of Madeira, a small island off the coast of Africa, that lacks radiologists trained to read the stuff? Teleradiology, of course, and who better to link up with than Belgium's Virtual Colonoscopy Teaching Centre, which uses its teleradiology experience to further education in places that lack expert readers.
With the aid of a low-cost online data transfer method well known to consumers, and a little training in patient prep, radiologists from Madeira's university were able to screen more than 500 patients and compare the results with optical colonoscopy, which performed nearly as well as VC. Get the rest of the story in our Insider Exclusive.
Back in the U.S., a similarly large cohort undergoing reduced-prep VC found the process a whole lot more comfortable than the standard prep used in the optical colonoscopy exams that followed. Subjects reported significantly improved comfort, less change in bowel function, and decreased severity of bowel habit change using the laxative-free prep, in a study you'll find here.
A more comfortable prep is likely to increase the likelihood of adults getting screened, according to experts, and an easy one-day prep from the University of Rome looks to be another good candidate combining speed and high sensitivity.
Who knows, radiologists might even be more willing to read virtual colonoscopy studies now that they can do it on their iPads.
But even standard cathartic prep virtual colonoscopy seems to draw more participants than standard optical colonoscopy. A study from the Netherlands found far more takers for an invitation for virtual colonoscopy versus the conventional kind. Find out more here.
Then there are the screening patients who just won't quit. A recent study in the Lancet found that adults who start screening often continue screening for a variety of diseases -- even past age 75, when it's no longer recommended. Find out more by clicking here.
With warmest wishes for the holidays, we look forward to bringing you more important virtual colonoscopy news in 2012, right here in your Virtual Colonoscopy Digital Community.
