Dear Ultrasound Insider,
It can be tricky to decide how to manage thyroid nodules, which are common but not often malignant. It doesn't help that guidelines vary on how to follow up these nodules.
However, the Thyroid Imaging Reporting and Data System (TI-RADS) guidelines appear to offer the best diagnostic yield for thyroid cancer, outperforming similar guidelines from the American Thyroid Association and the Society of Radiologists in Ultrasound, according to a research team from Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.
Dr. Hannah Chung shared the results during a presentation at the recent American Roentgen Ray Society (ARRS) annual meeting. Our coverage is the subject of this newsletter's Insider Exclusive, which you can access before our regular members.
In other research presented at the ARRS meeting, a team from Weinstein Imaging Associates in Pittsburgh and Northwestern University found that automated breast ultrasound could serve as a supplemental breast cancer screening tool in women with dense breasts. Click here to get all the details.
Also, researchers from the Ochsner Clinic Foundation have determined that some patients with carotid stenosis can be followed up less frequently with ultrasound studies than others. Click here to learn about their recommendations.
In other news in your Ultrasound Community, we're featuring a paper from the May issue of the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine's Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine. As part of a new collaboration with the popular journal, we'll be reporting on a selected paper from each month's issue.
In our first featured paper, researchers from Korea reported that ultrasound elastography can be a useful problem-solving tool for assessing focal prostate lesions spotted on transrectal ultrasound. Click here for our article, and stay tuned in the coming months for more featured studies.
With the recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of Lumason from Bracco Diagnostics for focal liver lesions, ultrasound contrast advocates in the U.S. were finally able to celebrate the first regulatory approval of an agent for radiology applications.
In a well-timed presentation at the ARRS meeting, a research team from India highlighted the benefits of Lumason in assessing focal liver lesions. Click here for our coverage by Associate Editor Kate Madden Yee.
The FDA approval of Lumason may also serve as a catalyst for the broad adoption of ultrasound contrast agents. Where does ultrasound contrast go from here? Click here for a glimpse into the future.
Reimbursement is always critical in adopting new technologies. How do you get paid for radiology ultrasound contrast agent scans? Contributing writer Donna Richmond of Panacea Healthcare Solutions offers some tips.
After wrapping up their seven-part series on helping sonographers deal with and prevent back pain, echocardiographer Doug Wuebben and strength and conditioning coach Mark Roozen are now turning their attention to the bane for so many sonographers: neck and shoulder pain. You can access part 1 by clicking here.
Is there a topic you'd like to see covered? As always, please feel free to drop me a line.
