Author Interviews, Breast Cancer, Mammograms / 03.12.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Stamatia Destounis MD, FACR, FSBI, FAIUM Elizabeth Wende Breast Care Clinical Professor University of Rochester Imaging Sciences Rochester, NY 14620  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response:  The current breast cancer screening recommendations in the United States are unclear regarding when to stop screening. Several societies with published recommendations conflict in regard to when to discontinue screeningmammography. There is little evidence studying the benefit of annual mammography in the population of women 75 and older. Due to this, we felt that it was a very important and timely topic to investigate, with the goal of providing further guidance on why screening mammography may be beneficial in this older population. (more…)
Alzheimer's - Dementia, Author Interviews, MRI / 29.11.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Cyrus A. Raji, MD PhD Asst Prof of Radiology, Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology Neuroradiology Faculty and the Neuoimaging Laboratories Washington University School of Medicine St. Louis MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?  Response: Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia and every patient suspected of having this disorder receives an MRI scan of the brain. MRI scans of the brain in dementia are currently limited to evaluating for structural lesions that could be leading to memory loss such as stroke or tumor. What this study sought to accomplish was to determine if a newer type of MRI scan called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) can predict who will experience cognitive decline and dementia. We found that DTI can predict persons who will demented 2.6 years before the earliest onset of symptoms. This study was done in 61 individuals, 30 converters and 31 non-converters, from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative and we found that DTI metrics could predict dementia 2.6 years later with 89-95% accuracy. (more…)
Author Interviews, CT Scanning, Pain Research / 28.11.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Alessandro Napoli MD PhD Department of Radiological, Oncological and Pathological Sciences Sapienza University of Rome  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?  Response: Disc Herniation in the lumbar region can create intense pain in the lower back and along the leg as a result of nerve compression. People suffering disc herniation may either experience a spontaneous relief from the pain or requiring further medical actions in order to improve quality of life and going back to work and daily activities. When the pain is not responding to usual conservative care (both physical and pharmacological therapy) surgery is often considered a valid option.However, most of the people (despite the intense pain) would possibly avoid surgery. For this reason, Interventional percutaneous therapies such as intraforaminal injection of steroid have become more popular. Pulsed radiofrequency is a percutaneous therapy that may have the potential to rapidly relief the pain in a long lasting way by means of single 10 minutes procedure. We decided to undertook a randomized clinical trial to test the clinical benefit of pulsed radiofrequency therapy using intraforaminal injection as a control group. in both groups percutaneous approach was guided under precise guidance of CT images. Pulsed radiofrequency group patients experience a faster and more durable pain control during the 1 year period follow up. Incidence of retreatment or cross-over was significantly higher in the injection only group. (more…)