Dear AuntMinnie Member,
Should women older than age 75 continue to undergo breast cancer screening? Not if you ask the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. But evidence is accumulating that continued screening of older women could be beneficial.
So concludes a new article we're featuring in our Women's Imaging Community by Associate Editor Kate Madden Yee, who attended a presentation by Dr. Stamatia Destounis on the topic at the recent American Roentgen Ray Society (ARRS) meeting in Toronto.
Women are living longer, and women older than 65 represent a significant number of the total annual deaths from breast cancer. So why not continue to screen at older ages?
That question is borne out by a second presentation at the ARRS show, in which researchers from NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital presented data on the number of invasive cancers they found in women older than 75 -- an especially relevant finding now that U.S. women can expect to live 12 to 15 years beyond that age.
Read more by clicking here, or visit the community at women.auntminnie.com.
Contrast US obviates CT in kids
In other news, researchers from the U.K. have found that contrast-enhanced ultrasound could be used in children with solid-organ injuries, eliminating the need for CT in this radiation-sensitive population.
A research group from a level I trauma center in the U.K. examined all of their referrals between 1999 and 2013 for abdominal trauma patients who received both contrast ultrasound and CT. They found that many patients received follow-up CT scans, despite the fact that contrast ultrasound correctly diagnosed all of the complications.
Learn more by clicking here, or visit our Ultrasound Community at ultrasound.auntminnie.com.
X-ray of child abuse
Finally, in our Digital X-Ray Community we're highlighting a recent study on a sensitive topic: child abuse. Boston University researchers examined how many children who presented at a safety-net hospital with suspected child abuse were actually found to be abuse victims based on images from radiography skeletal surveys. That story is available by clicking here.
