Dear CT Insider,
New data confirm that CT use has dropped, according to a report that followed Medicare utilization rates from 2000 to 2010, the last year for which figures are available. Researchers from Pennsylvania explored what happened, and they offer their views on how it came about in this issue's CT Insider Exclusive.
But one area of medicine still shows CT use going gangbusters. Learn the details by clicking here.
In our almost-sort-of-but-not-really-CT department, Johns Hopkins University researchers explored a dual-phase angiography procedure based on conebeam CT principles in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. In images acquired immediately after transcatheter arterial chemoembolization, they found that the technique predicted treatment outcomes just as well as conventional MR images acquired a month after the procedure, opening up several new patient management options. For the rest of the story, click here.
In chest CT, a new automated image analysis technique from the University of Michigan is promising to map the precise lung regions where emphysema is present, offering physicians potentially enormous capabilities in determining the best treatment options for each case. Find out more by clicking here.
Also in the lungs, a new study concluded that noncontrast CT may underestimate the volume of smaller nodules, a finding with potentially important implications for lung cancer screening and patient management.
CT is back on the list of the most potentially dangerous medical technologies, according to nonprofit research firm ECRI Institute. Learn more about it by clicking here. ECRI also held a comprehensive session on choosing the right CT scanner.
Things seem to be looking up in virtual colonoscopy, whose leading researchers are increasingly convinced they've proved its value and delivered any missing data that U.S. healthcare bosses were looking for when they denied reimbursement in 2009. Is paid VC screening only a matter of time? Find out more here.
Finally, if you're on your way to radiology's biggest and baddest meeting later this month in Chicago, don't miss your chance to fill out your RSNA schedule with some of the top scientific sessions on CT, using our Road to RSNA CT Preview.
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