What radiologists need to know about the Zika virus

This Hot Topic Session will consist of five presentations on topics such as the role of the radiologist in Zika infection, prenatal imaging findings of congenital Zika infection, pathological correlation with imaging findings, and an update on prevention and vaccination.

The Zika virus has caused increasing concern and even alarm worldwide as clinicians have witnessed the serious harm that exposure to the pathogen can wreak, both pre- and postnatally.

Imaging findings in Dr. Debra Levine and colleagues' recent publication in Radiology included abnormalities such as ventriculomegaly in approximately 94% of cases.

"In our course, I will talk about how Zika is different from other congenital infections that we typically see," Levine, from Beth-Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, told AuntMinnie.com. "We will then have three of the authors from Brazil, who will be talking about not only our published paper but some new findings since May 2016."

A U.S. infectious disease specialist will talk about efforts to develop a vaccine as one of the possible methods of decreasing the spread of the disease, and there will be a panel discussion, Levine said.