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Medical imaging: The good, the bad and the ugly

In the political minefield of healthcare reform, medical imaging has emerged as a microcosm of this contentious debate. Congress has been charged with a high stakes, high wire balancing act: to create a bill preserving quality and access while trimming unethical and unnecessary spending. Medical imaging represents such a challenge, with its undeniable benefits tainted by inappropriate use.

13 Aug 2009

Clever biochemical strategy enables bacteria to move freely and colonize host

A team of researchers from Boston University, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently made a discovery that changes a long held paradigm about how bacteria move through soft gels.

13 Aug 2009

Similarities found in the way neural circuits linked to vision process information in both sighted and blind since birth

The ability to recognize visually presented objects relies on a critical neural pathway called the ventral stream. Previous imaging studies of the human brain have demonstrated that the sight of nonliving objects, such as tools and houses, activates different regions within the ventral stream than the sight of living things, such as animals and faces. It is not known whether category-specific neural responses in the ventral stream depend on visual experience.

13 Aug 2009

$3.2M grant to explore how chemicals affect human health

Most people would agree that arsenic, lead, mercury, benzene and carbon monoxide pose dangers to humans. Not many, though, realize that the average person is exposed to about 10,000 different chemicals per day.

12 Aug 2009

MRI used as early warning system for Alzheimer's disease and dementia

When we absorb new information, the human brain reshapes itself to store this newfound knowledge. But where exactly is the new knowledge kept, and how does that capacity to adapt reflect our risk for Alzheimer's disease and other forms of senile dementia later in our lives?

12 Aug 2009

Virtualscopics reports record Q2 2009 financials

VirtualScopics, Inc. (Nasdaq: VSCP), a leading provider of quantitative imaging for clinical trials, today announced its financial results for the quarter and six months ended June 30, 2009.

12 Aug 2009

Endocyte announces results from study of EC145 in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer

Results were presented at the 13th World Conference on Lung Cancer in San Francisco. The single arm Phase II study evaluated the therapeutic agent EC145 and the molecular imaging agent EC20 in 42 patients with advanced adenocarcinoma of the lung. Forty percent of patients involved in the clinical trial had already failed at least four chemotherapy regimens prior to enrollment in the study.

12 Aug 2009

Alcoholics display abnormal brain activity when processing facial expressions

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have found that individuals who have a long history of alcoholism, but who have been abstinent for at least a month up to many years, showed abnormal brain activity when looking at facial expressions of others.

12 Aug 2009

Education impacts cognitive function in Alzheimer's disease

Researchers at the Department of Psychiatry, Klinikum rechts der Isar, Technische Universität München, investigated the effects of formal education on the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. They were able to show that education diminishes the impact of Alzheimer's disease on cognition even if a manifest brain volume loss has already occurred.

12 Aug 2009

New tool for virtual surgery simulates blood flow - helps plan child's delicate heart surgery

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, collaborating with pediatric cardiologists and surgeons at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, have developed a tool for virtual surgery that allows heart surgeons to view the predicted effects of different surgical approaches. By manipulating three-dimensional cardiac magnetic resonance images of a patient's specific anatomy, physicians can compare how alternative approaches affect blood flow and expected outcomes, and can select the best approach for each patient before entering the operating room.

12 Aug 2009

Report: Some U.S. health care spending 'squandered'

CNN Money details a recent report from the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers' Health Research Institute that found $1.2 trillion, or more than half of the $2.2 trillion the United States spends on health care each year, is wasted: "What counts as waste?

11 Aug 2009

Oxygen nanosensor could improve tumor imaging

A new material developed at the University of Virginia - an oxygen nanosensor that couples a light-emitting dye with a biopolymer - simplifies the imaging of oxygen-deficient regions of tumors. Such tumors are associated with increased cancer aggressiveness and are particularly difficult to treat.

11 Aug 2009

Holography helps tackle ovarian cancer

Two University of Arizona researchers have formed a research team to design, build and evaluate two versions of an ovarian cancer medical imaging and screening instrument that will use holographic components in a new type of optical microscope.

11 Aug 2009

'Nanobee' drug delivery to tumors

When bees sting, they pump poison into their victims. Now the toxin in bee venom has been harnessed to kill tumor cells by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The researchers attached the major component of bee venom to nano-sized spheres that they call nanobees.

11 Aug 2009

Virtual heart surgery helps plan child's surgery

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, collaborating with pediatric cardiologists and surgeons at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, have developed a tool for virtual surgery that allows heart surgeons to view the predicted effects of different surgical approaches.

10 Aug 2009

Traditional Chinese acupuncture affects the brain's long-term ability to regulate pain

Acupuncture has been used in East-Asian medicine for thousands of years to treat pain, possibly by activating the body's natural painkillers. But how it works at the cellular level is largely unknown.

10 Aug 2009

Gallbladder emptying in primary sclerosing cholangitis patients

Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) is an idiopathic chronic cholestatic inflammatory liver disease characterized by diffuse fibrosing inflammation of intra- and/or extrahepatic bile ducts, resulting in bile duct obliteration, biliary cirrhosis, and eventually hepatic failure. One of the most common symptoms at the time of presentation of PSC is mild to severe abdominal pain localized in the right upper quadrant. However, the mechanisms responsible for the abdominal pain in PSC are not fully understood.

10 Aug 2009

Mindray Medical International announces Q2 2009 financials

Mindray Medical International Limited (NYSE: MR), a leading developer, manufacturer and marketer of medical devices worldwide announced today its selected unaudited financial results for the second quarter and first half ended June 30, 2009.

From Mindray 10 Aug 2009

Chindex International reports financials for first quarter of fiscal 2010

Chindex International, Inc. (Nasdaq: CHDX), a leading independent American provider of Western healthcare products and services in the People's Republic of China, today announced results for its first quarter of fiscal 2010, ended June 30, 2009.

10 Aug 2009

AHRA and Toshiba partner on putting patients first program

Patient safety and quality care continue to be important issues for hospitals and imaging centers. To help these facilities start new or build upon existing programs, AHRA: The Association for Medical Imaging Management announces the second year of its Putting Patients First grant program.

10 Aug 2009