Dear Women's Imaging Insider,
Consensus is growing that postmortem MRI is an effective, less invasive way of gathering information about fetuses compared with conventional autopsy. In a new study, U.K. researchers found that postmortem MRI can provide clinically important information in more than half of cases in which a conventional autopsy is nondiagnostic.
This approach has "significant implications" for future clinical practice, according to the authors. Read more.
Another study out of the U.K. also has significant implications -- not for practice, but for training purposes. The researchers found high-resolution monitors are not so essential after all; LCD monitors with image manipulation software work quite well, and this wasn't all down to experience. Also, one study participant using an iPhone correctly identified all the small microcalcification clusters on the iPhone image. Is reading mammograms on an iPhone in your future? Find out.
Also in your Women's Imaging Community, German research presented at this month's Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging annual meeting found FDG-PET/CT scans can help predict disease progression and overall survival of ovarian cancer patients for as long as several years after treatment. The negativity of a PET scan is a good predictor of longer overall and progression-free survival.
Another salvo in the screening mammography wars was recently released -- this time in the form of a literature review in the New England Journal of Medicine. The article suggests that breast cancer screening reduces mortality by 40%, but both sides of the breast screening debate may be able to gain ammunition from the report's findings. Weigh in at the end of the article by posting a comment.
Speaking of screening, new evidence has shown that women screened for breast cancer in the U.S. were recalled for workup much more frequently than women screened in Denmark, and cancer detection rates also varied significantly. U.S. and Danish women have about the same probability of having their asymptomatic cancers detected at screening. In the U.S., however, the recall rate on initial screening is higher than the recall rate in Denmark. Find out by how much.
There's more in your Women's Imaging Community, much more, so be sure to head over there or scroll to the bottom of this message. As always, I enjoy hearing from you, so send me an email anytime.
