A study published today in the Lancet Oncology Journal serves as a fitting follow up to our blog post from last week about when it is appropriate to choose MRI over PET/CT scans. The study, entitled Ionising radiation-free whole-body MRI versus F-fluorodeoxyglucose PET/CT scans for children and young adults with cancer, is essentially a reiteration of the message [...]
One of our patients recently asked Dr. Attariwala some great questions: When is MRI most suitable for diagnostic imaging? What tissues/areas of the body are best imaged with MRI? How does MRI compare with other imaging modalities such as CT, FDG PET and Ultrasound? MRI and Ultrasound are, wherever possible, preferable to CT and PET [...]
A new report put out by the World Health Organization presents a bleak prospect: World cancer rates are expected to rise by more than half by 2030. These findings were published in the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)'s World Cancer Report, a collaborative effort of over 250 scientists and health specialists from [...]
The official BC Cancer Statistics offer a sad insight into how many lives have been affected--and ultimately lost--to cancer in this province. The table below represents the statistics of Residual Life Expectancy, Potential Years of Life Lost and Number of Deaths for all cancer deaths reported in British Columbia in 2011. Residual Life Expectancy refers to [...]
As the National Post announced in an October 30 article, "Ontario recently became the first jurisdiction in Canada to begin using imaging machines designed to diagnose the living as a tool to uncover the medical secrets of the dead." Morbid though it may sound, there are indeed benefits to using medical imaging methods such as [...]
On October 8, the Vancouver Sun published an article reporting that a UBC-led study had cast doubt on an unproven medical theory called Chronic Cerebrospinal Venous Insufficiency, or CCSVI, which claims that constricted veins in the neck are the cause of Multiple Sclerosis. The article, like the study and theory that preceded it, is controversial: there is [...]
In an article published in the Globe and Mail last week, national president and CEO of the Canadian Cancer Society, Pamela Fralick, discussed the two biggest issues prevalent to treating cancer in Canada. The first issue addressed was the huge economic impact the disease has on society. Fralick writes, "In 2000, cancer cost $2.6-billion in [...]
Please see last week's post for the first half of this blog. In addition to outlining Whole Body DWI, Attariwala and Picker outline DWI applications for the following areas of the body: neck, lung, breast, genitourinary, gynecologic applications, esophagus, stomach, bowel, pancreas and liver. The article states that DWI in routine imaging of singular body [...]
Last week we announced the publication of Dr. Attariwala's and Wayne's article in the Journal of MRI. This week, let's take a look at their discoveries, and how they may be applied to diagnostic medicine to advance the state of the art for patients' best interests. In the article, authors Attariwala and Picker share their [...]
AIM Medical Imaging wishes to congratulate Dr. Raj Attariwala and Wayne Picker on the publication of their invited review article Whole Body MRI: Improved Lesion Detection and Characterization With Diffusion Weighted Techniques, published August 19, 2013 in the Journal of MRI. Now, patients, radiologists and the public can access the article in order to see for themselves [...]