An Italian study published online June 3 in Child’s Nervous System shows that cranial ultrasound is a highly specific and sensitive first-step choice for imaging infants who show signs of craniosynostosis. That’s the birth defect in which the plates of the skull fuse too early, causing abnormal head shape and potentially putting injurious pressure on the brain.

New female doctors applying for residency openings in radiology have different reasons for doing so than their male peers, and their priorities may challenge residency-program directors who’ve been trusting the conventional wisdom on things like work-life balance trumping career goals.  

Brain MRI may provide more clinical information on some patients with acute stroke, particularly in the detection of acute ischemia and the identification of some stroke-mimicking pathologies. However, every second counts in stroke care—and brain CT has such faster door-to-needle times and better feasibility that it likely will remain the first-line stroke-imaging exam for the foreseeable future.  

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s investigation into MRI contrast agents containing gadolinium, launched almost two years ago, has turned up zero evidence implicating these heavy-metal substances in any harms to the human brain. 

Patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms are better served by contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) than by color Doppler for follow-up care after receiving endovascular aortic repair (EVAR), according to a study published online May 18 in Clinical Hemorheology and Microcirculation.

Point-of-care ultrasound, aka “POCUS,” may not be great for finding what x-rays miss in children’s injured ankles, but it proved specific enough in a recent pilot study to recommend itself for ruling out significant ligament tears and radiographically occult bone damage.

Among the misgivings raised by the contemporary spotlight on imaging-related radiation exposure is whether head CT of children might affect their brain health down the road. In a spinoff study at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, it did no such thing.

Posttraumatic epilepsy is a known risk for adults who have suffered mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI). The same risk exists for children and teens, according to a longitudinal study published online May 5 in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics.