Dear AuntMinnie Member,
Here we go again. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said yesterday that it will require a black box warning on the packaging of ultrasound contrast agents due to concerns about cardiopulmonary reactions to the products.
The news follows on the heels of a similar black box warning that's now being required for gadolinium-based MRI contrast media, due to concerns about nephrogenic systemic fibrosis. We're featuring an article on the new warning for ultrasound contrast in our Ultrasound Digital Community.
It's unlikely that the black box warning for ultrasound contrast will have the same impact as the MRI advisory, as contrast is not used nearly as often for ultrasound as it is for MRI in the U.S. But still, the latest news represents another black eye for the contrast industry, and may further complicate efforts to gain more widespread usage of ultrasound contrast. Get the rest of the details by clicking here.
In other news, we address the topic of radiation dose for pediatric x-ray studies in our Digital X-Ray Community. Digital x-ray presents a vexing problem for pediatric imagers. Some digital technologies have been shown to result in increased dose if not monitored correctly (witness the "dose creep" phenomenon in computed radiography), while others offer the prospect of lower dose compared with conventional radiography.
In a new article, we address both sides of the radiation dose coin. In the first half of the story, we report on Spanish researchers who examined a series of pediatric chest studies conducted with CR, and determined that the imaging parameters suggested by CR manufacturers may result in unnecessarily high radiation dose in order to produce diagnostic-quality images.
Then we explain how a research team from South Africa tested a new type of digital radiography system, and compared the radiation dose it produced to a conventional x-ray system outfitted with CR. They found that for most exams, the DR unit was able to produce a sharply lower radiation dose.
Get the details on both studies by clicking here, or visit the Digital X-Ray Community at x-ray.auntminnie.com.
