AMICAS, Inc. has announced a new contract with Central Kentucky Radiology that will allow the latter to use AMICAS Financials(TM) to streamline their radiology billing and AMICAS RIS(TM) to gain practice management efficiencies and to further improve service delivery. Central Kentucky Radiology, a 24-radiologist practice, provides interpretation services for 14 hospitals and four imaging centers. In practice for more than 40 years, Central Kentucky Radiology provides mammography, x-ray, ultrasound, CT, MRI, and interventional radiology services.

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SonoSite’s NanoMaxx ultrasound system has just received FDA approval. The NanoMaxx system relies on SonoSite’s advanced proprietary imaging algorithms, including SonoMB and SonoAdapt to offer superior image quality in a lightweight, rugged form factor. Since it is fully portable, it can be used in several places including busy clinics, ambulances, emergency rooms and other places where ultrasound is required.

SuperSonic Imagine has received 510K clearance from the FDA for its Aixplorer(TM) ultrasound system. Aixplorer is the only commercially available system of its kind with MultiWave(TM) Technology, which is based upon interaction between conventional longitudinal waves and shear waves in tissue. The system displays tissue stiffness or elasticity information using shear waves. As stiffness is an additional parameter which characterizes tissue, Aixplorer brings clinicians significantly enhanced diagnostic information.

Doctors have come up with a revolutionary new mammogram that is radiation and pain free! They are using ultrasound technology to detect tumors in the breast. Radiologists from the Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, USA, suspend a woman’s breasts in water and fire ultrasound rays through them to generate images of the breast tissue. Not only is the new method pain free, it is said to be more accurate at picking up cancer than a traditional mammogram and uses no radiation so it’s safer for the patient.

Siemens Healthcare will be unveiling the Acuson SC2000 volume imaging ultrasound system, the only one of its kind in the world to capture non-stitched real-time full-volume 3D images of the heart in one single heart cycle, during the European Congress of Radiology, August 30 – September 4, 2008 in Munich, Germany. Called “Echo in a Heartbeat”, this new technological innovation, said Klaus Hambuechen, CEO, Ultrasound, Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc., allows us to acquire a full volume of the entire heart with 90 degree pyramids. “With a high-volume acquisition rate like this – in one second, every second – acquisition time is dramatically reduced, improving the overall workflow in the echocardiography suite”, he said.

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.

According to US researchers who conducted meta-analysis of 33 prospective studies, ultrasound or MRI should be the imaging modality of choice in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). While colonoscopy and barium examination can also be used, these methods are time consuming. Moreover, colonoscopy is invasive and may result in perforation in severe ulcerative colitis. Reported sensitivities and specificities of other options, such as ultrasonography, CT, MRI and scintigraphy, vary and, hence, are not extremely reliable.

The latest addition to Royal Philips Electronics’ HD ultrasound products range, the Philips HD7 ultrasound system, works by providing grayscale and color Doppler imaging with one button optimization. It also produces Tissue Harmonic Imaging. The product caters to the basic scanning needs of the high-volume cardiovascular, OB/GYN, anesthesiology, oncology, electro physiology, stress echo, pediatric, orthopedic, urologic, emergency and other arenas.

The system is currently not available in the U.S.