Help may be on the way for people who might lose contact with reality through a psychotic disorder, such as schizophrenia.

Despite a broad campaign among physician groups to reduce the amount of medical imaging, use rates of various scans have continued to increase in both the U.S. and Ontario, Canada, according to a new study. A recent reacceleration in the growth of imaging concerns researchers because it is widely believed to be overused. The study of more than 135 million imaging exams was conducted by researchers at UC Davis, UC San Francisco and Kaiser Permanente.

Researchers in South Korea have found that patients with family and personal history of allergic reactions to contrast media are at risk for future reactions, according to a large study published in the journal Radiology.1 Allergic reactions to commonly used computed tomography (CT) contrast media may be prevented by premedicating patients with antihistamines and using a different type of contrast agent.

Civco will display its Universal Couchtop ProForm Head & Neck Solution at the 2019 American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) annual meeting, Sept. 15-18 in Chicago.

A notable increase in the prevalence of chronic diseases has led to a surge in sales of high-end diagnostic machines, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners, which in turn is fostering demand for MRI-safe pulse oximeters, according to a new market report.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham, in conjunction with researchers at the University of Wisconsin and Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, have received a Department of Energy grant to solve a production roadblock for the radioactive isotopes 43Sc and 47Sc. These radioactive isotopes of the metallic element scandium (Sc) appear to be ideal for visualizing and then destroying solid tumors. A barrier, however, blocks their use — the inability to rapidly produce and purify the isotopes in useful amounts. 43Sc has a half-life of 3.9 hours, so every four hours more than half the radioactivity is lost. It must be used in a positron emission tomography (PET) scan the same day it is made.

A new 3-D magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) computing technique developed by scientists in WMG at the University of Warwick focuses on hierarchical template matching (HTM) to diagnose cardiac disease without the use of gadolinium contrast. The technique is explored in an article in the journal Scientific Reports.