Dear Digital X-Ray Insider,
In this edition of the Insider, we take a look at yet another potential clinical application for digital tomosynthesis, that exciting new digital radiography technology that creates tomographic slices from x-ray data.
In a study presented at last month's European Congress of Radiology (ECR), researchers from the University of Washington investigated whether it was better to use tomosynthesis than conventional radiography to screen patients with neutropenia who were at risk of developing pneumonia. It's an important issue, as there is a 10% mortality risk for these individuals; however, conventional radiography has poor sensitivity, while CT would expose them to a higher radiation burden.
We'll let you read the story to find out what they discovered, but you should also check it out to learn about their unique method for creating simulated tomosynthesis images from reconstructed CT data. Get the details in our Insider Exclusive, available to you before the rest of the AuntMinnie.com membership.
In other recent news in the Digital X-Ray Community, read about another presentation from ECR 2014 by German researchers who found that radiography still has value in determining whether patients scheduled for tuberculosis therapy have latent disease -- even with CT readily available. Radiography demonstrated high specificity and positive predictive value, and while its sensitivity was lower, it had a far lower radiation burden than CT. Read more by clicking here.
Are interventional radiologists at greater risk of developing cataracts due to exposure to medical radiation? That was the disturbing question raised at the recent Society of Interventional Radiology meeting last month, where researchers studied the eyes of more than 100 interventional radiologists for early signs of cataract formation. Find out what will be done with the data by clicking here.
Finally, check out this case report of a successful interventional retrieval of a portacath fragment, and learn how digital radiography figured into the product introductions of the Big Four radiology vendors at ECR 2014.
