Dear AuntMinnie Member,
Apart from artificial intelligence (AI), photon-counting CT was the technology that generated the most buzz at the RSNA 2021 meeting earlier this month. Our top article for the past week covers a new study that helps explain much of what the hubbub is all about.
Researchers led by Cynthia McCollough, PhD, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, described their experiences with photon-counting CT and how its technical performance compared with conventional CT. They found that in high-resolution mode, photon-counting CT had 125-micron in-plane spatial resolution and 0.3-mm longitudinal resolution.
Did you see our video interview with McCollough at RSNA 2021? She explained how photon-counting CT works and what its clinical benefits are likely to be in years to come.
Other big stories in CT this week include a study from RSNA on whether interval chest CT findings should influence the timing of lung cancer screening, the acquisition of metrics on body composition from analysis of CT exams, and the prediction of osteoporosis risk based on dual-energy CT exams.
You'll find these stories and more in our CT Community.
AI gets fooled
It's no secret that AI is one of the most exciting technologies in radiology. But the growing use of AI is also raising some interesting questions -- both practical and hypothetical.
Researchers from China and the U.S. wanted to find out if AI would be able to detect images that might have been tampered with through nefarious purposes such as a cyberattack. Unfortunately, their experiment found that a set of tampered breast images they created escaped detection by both an AI algorithm and expert radiologists.
Other important AI articles this week include a study in which AI was used to assess patient age and future health risk based on analysis of dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry scans, research on the performance of AI for analyzing multiparametric MRI scans of prostate cancer, and a study that showed how deep learning can detect emphysema on CT lung cancer screening studies.
You'll find all the latest research in our Artificial Intelligence Community.
Private equity in radiology
Perhaps no topic is more controversial right now than the role of private equity in radiology. Investment money is flowing into radiology, but it's also changing the medical specialty in ways that are only beginning to be understood.
We explore this emerging trend in our newest special report, Trends in Radiology Economics in 2022. In addition to an article on private equity, you'll find a story on regulatory changes that radiology can expect in 2022, and an article covering the trends in mergers and acquisitions to expect next year.
