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Medical imaging costs at a steady percentage of overall hospital costs

The substantial increase in the use of medical imaging during recent years has fueled speculation that imaging costs were a major factor behind the rise in overall health care costs.

24 May 2005

Vitamin E as part of diet may prevent Parkinson's

A new study by Canadian researchers at Royal Victoria Hospital in Quebec has shown that a moderate daily intake of vitamin E through foods appears to prevent the onset of Parkinson's disease.

22 May 2005

New insight into the machinery cells use to internalize cell surface receptors

Using state of the art imaging technology a team from Yale School of Medicine has glimpsed one of the cell's most important 'nano-machines' in action. The work, performed in collaboration with English and French scientists, provides new insight into the machinery cells use to internalize cell surface receptors.

22 May 2005

So you thought that smell was cheese!

Researchers in the UK have found that visual words can influence the perception of smells, with pleasant words influencing olfactory brain regions to perceive an odour as pleasant, an interesting idea that might hold particular relevance for restaurateurs and advertisers.

20 May 2005

CAD system makes breast MRI more effective, efficient

A computer-aided detection (CAD) system is helping radiologists to more quickly and accurately determine the sizes and locations of cancers found on breast MRI—information that could change patients’ treatment, a new study shows.

20 May 2005

New MRI techniques may help patients avoid knee surgery

Patients with suspected meniscal tears or other injuries to their knees may be able to avoid arthroscopic surgery by having a 3-Tesla MRI examination instead, two studies together indicate.

20 May 2005

Obese people incorrectly diagnosed with asthma

Clinical tests carried out by the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research indicate obese people may be incorrectly being diagnosed and treated for asthma when in fact the reason for shortness of breath may be related to the extra weight they carry.

18 May 2005

Radioimmunotherapy streamlines non-Hodgkin's lymphoma treatment

Researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California and colleagues have found a way to streamline a new form of treatment for patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

18 May 2005

Don’t skip chest CT in the ER just because X-ray checks out okay, warns study

Chest X-rays may miss 40% of clinically significant thoracic injuries in multiple trauma patients that can be caught by chest CT, say researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

18 May 2005

Rifaximin is effective in preventing attacks of diarrhea

An antibiotic can be safely used to prevent attacks of diarrhea that plague millions of globe-trotting vacationers and business travelers, a Houston research team reports this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

17 May 2005

Patients with suspicious axillary lymph nodes in their breasts should first undergo ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration to avoid unnecessary surgery

Currently, breast cancer patients undergo axillary lymph node dissection for accurate staging and control of the cancer. In many cases, this major procedure can be replaced by sentinel lymph node biopsy, which is a more simple and less invasive surgical procedure, but many still have to undergo axillary dissection after the sentinel lymph node biopsy.

17 May 2005

"Streaming detection" ultrasound could reduce number of diagnostic procedures for breast lumps

"Streaming detection" ultrasound accurately differentiated fluid-filled cysts from solid masses in a recent pilot study and has the potential to reduce the number of cyst aspirations and imaging follow-ups for breast masses that are indeterminate at conventional ultrasound, say researchers from Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC.

17 May 2005

Whole-body MRI takes less than twenty minutes to accurately scan a patient’s entire body for cancer spread to the bone

Whole-body MRI with an automatic moving table is effective for evaluating the entire skeleton in patients with suspected bone metastasis (cancer that has spread to the bone from other parts of the body) in a single imaging scan-and it only takes between 15 and 18 minutes, say two different European studies.

17 May 2005

Digital mammography leads to significant decreases in the number of patients called back to the hospital for further mammograms

The use of digital mammography instead of conventional screen film mammography can lead to significant decreases in the number of patients called back to the hospital for further mammograms, making it easier on the patient and saving money, says a new study.

17 May 2005

Multi-tasking skills develops late in adolescence

Parents of teenagers frustrated by their children's inability to focus on more than one thing at a time can take hope: a new study from researchers at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis finds behavioral evidence that the part of the brain responsible for the ability to multi-task continues to develop until late adolescence.

17 May 2005

Combined MRI and mammography more effective at detecting breast cancer in high risk women

Annual screening, using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and X-ray mammography, is the best way to detect breast cancer in women that have a high genetic risk of the disease, according to a study published online by The Lancet.

16 May 2005

Women more vulnerable to chronic drinking than men are

A study in the May issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research addresses this gap in research, using computed tomography (CT) to examine brain atrophy in the brains of alcoholic men and women. The findings support and build upon a prior hypothesis that women develop alcohol-related brain damage more readily than men.

16 May 2005

Counting number of endothelial cells in blood may predict cancer treatment's effectiveness

Counting the amount of a type of normal cell circulating in the blood of people with cancer could predict whether a tumor progresses or responds to therapy, a new study led by the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center has found. The finding could give doctors an early indication of whether a treatment will be successful, sparing patients months of an ineffective therapy.

15 May 2005

Magnetic stimulation treatment for depression

Barbara Baas ran away from home and tried to kill herself as a teenager. As an adult, she has tried more than 15 varieties of antidepressants. But, thanks to a new weapon, she has finally reached a truce in a 45-year battle.

10 May 2005

Breast CT may improve on mammography - more gentler, more accurate

A new breast screening technology that may be able to detect tumors earlier than mammography -- without the need for uncomfortable breast compression -- is being tested in patients at the University of California, Davis, Medical Center.

10 May 2005