Dear AuntMinnie Member,
It's back and better than ever -- the Minnies, AuntMinnie.com's annual event recognizing excellence in radiology!
Every year we take suggestions from our members for candidates in 14 categories, ranging from Most Influential Radiology Researcher to Best New Radiology Vendor. Then, our expert committee selects finalists in two rounds of voting, with awards presented to the winners at this year's RSNA meeting in Chicago.
This year we're pleased to add a new category, Most Effective Philanthropy Program or Campaign. Open to institutions, individuals, and companies, this award is designed to acknowledge the growing movement within radiology to give back to the community.
The Minnies awards are a great way to recognize the radiology professionals whose work is shaping our field. But we need your help to get started. To nominate a person, place, or product, just go to minnies.auntminnie.com. To see the winners of last year's Minnies, click here.
Autism and functional MRI
Autism in young children is often detected when parents and clinicians find that important early developmental milestones haven't been met. While objective indications of language impairment can be tricky to gather in these patients, the combination of functional MRI (fMRI) and passive speech stimulation may offer an effective tool.
In a study published in this month's Radiology, a research team led by Grace Lai, PhD, of Columbia's Functional MRI Research Center, found that this pairing was able to demonstrate physiologic differences between autistic and healthy children. Features editor Wayne Forrest has our coverage of the research, which you can find here or by visiting our MRI Digital Community at mri.auntminnie.com.
CR dose reduction in knee imaging
In the ongoing quest to lower radiation dose, researchers from the Medical University of Vienna are reporting that a computed radiography (CR) storage phosphor plate with needle-shaped crystals can yield lower dose -- and better image quality -- than conventional storage phosphor plate methods in knee imaging.
At 75% of the standard dose, the CR detector technology produced images that were still rated higher by the six readers in the study. Even more dose reduction may be possible, according to the study team in their paper published in the August edition of the American Journal of Roentgenology.
Learn more by clicking here, or visit our Digital X-Ray Community at xray.auntminnie.com.
