Dear AuntMinnie Member,
The cost-effectiveness of colon screening tests has become a political hot potato as proponents of virtual colonoscopy continue to press for Medicare reimbursement of the technology.
Their efforts might be complicated by the publication of a new study in Radiology this month indicating that virtual colonoscopy could be less cost-effective for colorectal cancer screening than some other tests.
But it's not all bad news. The analysis is based on population models, and if you lower screening compliance to levels more in line with the real world, virtual colonoscopy beats optical colonoscopy, if not stool tests, in terms of cost-effectiveness. Learn more by clicking here, or visit our Virtual Colonoscopy Digital Community at vc.auntminnie.com.
PET for Hodgkin's lymphoma, cardiac ischemia
In other news, we're featuring a pair of articles on PET's performance in several different indications in our Molecular Imaging Digital Community.
First up is a study that suggests PET with the FDG radiotracer can be a good tool for detecting signs of bone marrow involvement in pediatric Hodgkin's lymphoma patients. The modality performs well enough that it could be used to guide treatment without the use of an invasive bone marrow biopsy, according to an article you can read by clicking here.
Another article looks at the use of PET with rubidium-82 for predicting cardiac events. While supplies of the radiopharmaceutical have been constrained recently due to a product recall, a new study indicates that rubidium PET does a good job in assessing myocardial flow reserve, helping improve the risk evaluation of patients being investigated for cardiac ischemia. Learn more by clicking here.
Get these stories and more in our Molecular Imaging Digital Community at molecular.auntminnie.com.
