According to the results of a major new clinical trial, adding a screening ultrasound examination to routine mammography reveals more breast cancers than mammography alone. This study also showed that supplemental ultrasound may be beneficial in women at high risk of breast cancer who could not, or would not, otherwise undergo a magnetic resonance imaging scan. The trial, however, also found that adding an ultrasound exam increases the rate of false positive findings and unnecessary biopsies.

A team of researchers from Indiana University School of Medicine and the Purdue School of Science at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis have come up with the first three dimensional image of a chemotherapy agent targeting and binding to DNA. The study used X-ray crystallography to create the molecular level image of bleomycin bound to DNA.

The American Society of Breast Disease’s Consensus Committee has corroborated that screening MRI is appropriate as an additional test to mammography, clinical breast examination, and ultrasonography for the detection of breast cancer in women who are at high risk. The recommendation was based on the most current data available.

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According to a team of researchers led by Dr. Steven Raman, the chances of patients having an unnecessary appendix operation have declined since 1996, as doctors are turning towards CT scans to diagnose appendicitis. Published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the study involved 1081 patients who had their appendix removed, and the figure of 20% CT scans in 1996 went up to 85% in 2006.

The US federal government will continue to cover the scanning procedure to detect heart disease, despite having misgivings over whether such coverage is justified or not. The payments would be left up to the local insurance carriers who have been covering these tests so far. Dr. Barry Straube, CMO for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said that more evidence is needed before the policy can be reversed.

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The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) this month became the first U.S. medical center to offer a speedier cancer radiation therapy. The new RapidArc therapy, which is the next-generation of intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), can turn a 20-minute radiotherapy session into a 90-second session for selected cancer patients. Additionally, the new therapy saves healthy human tissue from unwanted radiation exposure at rates that are similar to or better than other radiotherapy techniques. Faster radiation delivery times reduce the chances that a slight move will affect the accuracy of the radiotherapy targeting.

According to a Dutch study, the often-used MRI scans to detect breast cancer frequently scare women unnecessarily. Five out of six scans were found to be incorrect, although the women concerned were going for mastectomies only after careful analysis. Published in the Annals of Oncology, the study further states that women with certain genes face 85% risk of breast cancer.

Connect Imaging Inc., developer of customizable PACS (picture archiving and communication systems), has released a new version of its Mammo ViewBox software to support a super high resolution mammography display from Japan’s Totoku Electric Co. Ltd. Connect Imaging’s mammography workstation software is the first to support the ISD technology of the Totoku MS51i2 digital mammography display.

Sonomed Inc., a subsidiary of Escalon Medical Corp, has received the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) approval in China to market the PacScan(R) and E/Z-Scan(R) series of products. Both products are already being marketed internationally and are among the best-selling ophthalmic biometry and ultrasound imaging systems. Sonomed Inc. is a diagnostic ultrasound company that focuses on instruments for ophthalmology.

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Using the newly designed 3-D ultrasound technology, Duke University bioengineers can compensate for the thickness and unevenness of the skull to see in real-time the arteries within the brain that most often clog up and cause strokes. The researchers believe that these advances will ultimately improve the treatment of stroke patients by enabling emergency medical technicians (EMT) to quickly scan the heads of potential stroke victims while in the ambulance or allowing physicians to easily monitor in real time the patients’ response to therapy at the bedside.

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