Perhaps rules are meant to be broken. But guidelines, according to recent research, are not always followed when physicians recommend breast cancer screening to patients.

Dense breast tissue presents problems for detecting cancer—often leading to additional screenings after negative or questionable mammograms. But at RSNA 2017 in Chicago, a research team discussed abbreviated breast MRI (AB-MR), a new method to screen asymptomatic women with dense breasts.

Being overweight is associated with a host of deleterious effects for an individual’s health, including increased risk for hypertension, cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Now, research presented Nov. 27 at RSNA 2017 connected difficulties in detecting breast cancer in women with higher body mass indexes (BMI).  

The United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) will be introducing an initiative to make it easier for individuals to get screened for lung cancer. While not quite door-to-door service, the plan will park mobile CT scanning units in supermarket parking lots.

In resource-strapped parts of the world, point-of-care ultrasound can help palliative care clinicians provide better care for patients with life-limiting conditions and, in turn, offer more confident guidance to these patients’ families, according to a study published online Nov. 15 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Athletes suffering suspected tears of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) are often adequately assessed with clinical diagnostic tests performed in the clinician’s office. When these are inconclusive, diagnostic arthroscopy is the gold standard—and MRI is a generally low-value option due to its time and cost burdens.

Parents may start to reconsider treatment options when it comes to the effects of anesthesia on their children thanks to new findings from Boston Children's Hospital. 

Axial spondyloarthropathy (axSpA), a chronic form of arthritis in the lower back, often causes inflammation in one’s sacroiliac joints, which connects the sacrum to the pelvis. But a retroactive study of MRI showed inflammation also can be seen in healthy individuals and not only those affected by axSpA, demonstrating the importance of other diagnostic measures.