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 [...]
Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, wrote an important article for Wired Magazine in 2010 about the effect that our modern culture of distraction--specifically the Internet--is having on our brains. "When we go online, we enter an environment that promotes cursory reading, hurried and distracted thinking, and superficial learning," [...]
Depression can have negative effects on the people who suffer from it, effects that are so far-reaching that they take a toll on their loved ones as well. While much progress has been made in recent years to lift the stigma of the disease in society's eyes, researchers--though they have made progress--are still unsure what [...]
Long has it been rumored that playing Mozart for your infant will aid in their brain development. Now, the results of a trio of MRI studies claim that musical education--especially when embarked upon at a young age--shapes and strengthens the brain for the better. According to the study, beginning a musical education before the age [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]