Diagnostic screening programs help catch cancer, abnormalities or other diseases before they reach an advanced stage, saving lives and healthcare costs. Screening programs include, lung, breast, prostate, and cervical cancer, among many others.
Breast density is most often discussed within the context of cancer risk, but new research suggests that it also could be used as a marker of cardiometabolic health.
The newly cleared offering, AutoChamber, was designed with opportunistic screening in mind. It can evaluate many different kinds of CT images, including those originally gathered to screen patients for lung cancer.
Outside of the correlation between measurements obtained using both modalities, the researchers also identified Hounsfield unit thresholds that could reliably rule out osteoporosis.
"This awareness is important to avoid oversight of symptoms like dyspnea and vague chest discomfort, which can easily be interpreted as symptoms caused by the known disease COPD,” experts involved in the study said.
Of the 51 plans, just 31% were consistent with the USPSTF recommendations pertaining to the starting age and frequency of screening women who are at average risk of developing breast cancer.
Although current guidelines recommend radiologists evaluate CAC on all non-gated, non-contrast chest CT scans, the authors of the study note that these guidelines are not consistently followed.
The results of a survey completed by more than 13,000 respondents who were eligible for the cancer screening revealed that less than 2% of eligible participants underwent CTC exams.
Researchers reported that the artificial intelligence system was able to interpret more than 114,000 screening mammograms using a reading protocol with high sensitivity and specificity.
The nuclear imaging isotope shortage of molybdenum-99 may be over now that the sidelined reactor is restarting. ASNC's president says PET and new SPECT technologies helped cardiac imaging labs better weather the storm.
CMS has more than doubled the CCTA payment rate from $175 to $357.13. The move, expected to have a significant impact on the utilization of cardiac CT, received immediate praise from imaging specialists.
