Tag Archives: MRI

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a technique that uses a magnetic field and radio waves to create detailed images of the organs and tissues within your body.

CDI Miami | Thursday October 7, 2021
imaging center Miami

MRI vs Biopsy: Which is the best diagnostic tool for prostate cancer?

screening-and-prevention
Prostate cancer is the second most deadly cancer in men, after lung cancer. There are an estimated 233,000 new cases of prostate cancer a year in the U.S. and 29,480 deaths, according to the National Cancer Institute.

A growing body of evidence shows that MRI can help physicians detect a larger percentage of aggressive cancers than conventional biopsies. Current medical practices dictate use of the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, which is followed up with a biopsy if PSA levels are determined to be high. Nonetheless, traditional ultrasound guided biopsies cannot always accurately target suspicious nodules, forcing patients to resubmit themselves to an uncomfortable procedure to achieve conclusive results.

MRI in Prostate Cancer Detection and Treatment

According to one study, published in July 2014 in European Urology, MRI used to detect prostate cancer can help triage patients with suspicious findings for targeted biopsy:

  • • Reduce the number of cores taken by 84 percent
  • • Reduce the number of biopsies by 36 percent
  • • Reduce detection of low-risk cancer by 87 percent,
  • • Increase detection of intermediate, and high-risk cancer by 18 percent.

 

Sumathi Reddy, consumer health columnist for the Wall Street Journal, notes in one article: “Because conventional biopsies can’t always distinguish when a cancer is clinically insignificant, patients sometimes undergo unnecessary surgery, radiation or other therapy. Such overtreatment has been a concern in the medical community for some time.”

Controversy over MRI as New Screening Standard.

A common objection to MRI screening use is that there are not many radiologists skilled in interpreting prostate MRI exams. Reddy remarks, “While it is important to note that experience matters, radiologists experienced with MRI in prostate cancer detection can offer greater clarity regarding rising PSA levels, prostate cancer diagnoses and prostate cancer prognoses.”

“Improved imaging with MRI may allow one to confidently recommend surveillance to a greater number of patients and to discover aggressive disease in areas that are not usually biopsied,” said Center for Cancer Research at the National Cancer Institute Clinical Director William Dahut, M.D. “No technology is perfect, that’s for sure. However, it is clear that our tools and ability to use these tools continues to markedly improve.”

The Center for Diagnostic Imaging is confident in the continued growth of prostate MRI exams, as it offers patients more accurate information about their disease to inform treatment decisions. MRI may well be the next frontier for cancer detection, as well as the new alternative to the current standard of care.

To learn more about our services, and to see how you can prevent disease by being screened, contact your closest Center for Diagnostic Imaging today.

CDI Miami | Monday September 20, 2021

The ‘Ins & Outs’ of a Cardiac MRI Procedure

Receiving a Heart MRI in Miami is a useful way to diagnose, treat and monitor cardiac conditions

 

An MRI, short for magnetic resonance imaging, is used to create detailed images of the organs and tissues within the body, including the heart.  Sometimes referred to as a heart MRI or a cardiac MRI, this procedure is usually performed when a doctor needs to diagnose or monitor cardiac disease or surgical changes in a patient. Unlike a CT scan, an MRI does not use radiation. It is considered a safer alternative for pregnant women. Continue reading

CDI Miami | Monday September 13, 2021

The Importance of Genetic Testing

dnaGenetic testing can be both informative as well as an effective preventative method by locating specific pre-cursors to disease: genomic bio-markers. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, “Genetic testing has potential benefits whether the results are positive or negative for a gene mutation. Test results can provide a sense of relief from uncertainty and help people make informed decisions about managing their health care. For example, a negative result can eliminate the need for unnecessary checkups and screening tests in some cases. A positive result can direct a person toward available prevention, monitoring, and treatment options. Some test results can also help people make decisions about having children. Newborn screening can identify genetic disorders early in life so treatment can be started as early as possible.”
 
Three of the most well-known abnormal genes are BRCA1, BRCA2, and PALB2. Women and men who inherit a mutation, or abnormal change, in any of these genes have a much higher-than-average risk of developing breast cancer and ovarian or prostate cancer. Continue reading

CDI Miami | Monday August 23, 2021

Advantages of using Elastography in Medical Imaging

New advances in elastography from “The Technology Partnership” could lead to improvements in surgical procedures and enhance a doctor’s ability to navigate around the body during operations.
 
Elastography is a medical imaging technique that maps the elastic properties of soft tissue to provide diagnostic information during surgery. The process determines the stiffness of tissue and can be adapted to measure the level of muscle contraction. Cancerous cells, for example, will often be profoundly stiffer than the surrounding tissue and diseased livers are stiffer than healthy ones.
 
Elastography’s strength lies in its ability to image tissues and organs that ultrasound cannot reach. It also has the advantage of being more uniform across operators and less dependent on operator skill than most methods of ultrasound elastography.
 
Other types of Elastography include:
 
Transient elastography, however, “gives a quantitative one-dimensional (i.e. a line) image of tissue stiffness. It functions by vibrating the skin with a motor to create a passing distortion in the tissue (ashear wave), and imaging the motion of that distortion as it passes deeper into the body using a 1D ultrasound beam. It then displays a quantitative line of tissue stiffness data (the Young’s modulus). This technique is used mainly by the FibroScan system, which is used for liver assessment, for example, to diagnose cirrhosis.”
 
In Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse Imaging (ARFI) uses ultrasound to create a 2-D map of tissue stiffness. It creates a push inside the tissue using the acoustic radiation force from a focused ultrasound beam. By pushing into the tissue masses, a map of varying tissue densities is created.
 
Whereas Supersonic Shear Imaging gives a quantitative, real-time two-dimensional map of tissue stiffness. It is often called ‘Shear Wave Elastography’, though it is not the only method to use shear waves. Like ARFI and SWEI, supersonic shear imaging uses acoustic radiation force to induce a ‘push’ inside the tissue of interest, and like SWEI, the tissue’s stiffness is computed from how fast the resulting shear wave travels through the tissue. By using many near-simultaneous pushes, and by using an advanced ultrafast imaging technique to track the wave, supersonic shear imaging can make a two-dimensional quantitative map of the tissue’s stiffness (the Young’s modulus), and create one every second.
 
It has demonstrated clinical benefit in breast, thyroid, liver, prostate and musculoskeletal imaging. Ultrasound Elasticity Imaging is used for breast examination with a number of high-resolution linear transducers. A large multi-center breast imaging study has demonstrated both reproducibility and significant improvement in the classification of breast lesions when shear wave elastography images are added to the interpretation of standard B-mode and Color mode ultrasound images.

 

CDI Miami | Tuesday August 10, 2021

What You Should Know About Breast Stereotactic Biopsy Procedures

If a Patient’s Breast MRI in Aventura Shows Abnormalities, a Breast Stereotactic Biopsy May be Needed

Breast MRI in Aventura is one of the most common diagnostic imaging tests performed in the area. When a patient’s results show abnormalities, further testing is often required in order to determine whether the area in question is benign or cancerous. Continue reading

CDI Miami | Thursday July 29, 2021
Significant Things About MRI Scans You Should Decipher

Radiology and the Treatment of Brain Injury and Disease

MRI, CT and PET Scans are Critical to Successful Patient Outcomes

This year, the focus of IDoR was brain imaging and radiation, which plays a critical role in diagnosing and treating brain disease and brain injuries. Continue reading

CDI Miami | Tuesday March 9, 2021

Why Do I Need an MRCP?

and how should I prepare?

 

mrcp - Magnetic Resonance Cholangiopancreatography

Image Credit: RadiologyInfo.org

Magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) is a type of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exam that produces detailed images of the hepatobiliary and pancreatic systems, including the liver, gallbladder, bile ducts, pancreas and pancreatic duct. MRI’s use magnetic fields, radio frequency pulses and a computer to produce pictures of organs, soft tissues, bone and virtually all other internal body structures. However, MRIs do not use ionizing radiation (x-rays). These images help physicians determine pathology in the tissue layers, which can then be transferred electronically, or printed out.

When are MRCPs used?

  • • Examine diseases of the liver, gallbladder, bile ducts, pancreas and pancreatic duct.
  • • Help diagnose abdominal pain
  • • Detect the underlying cause of pancreatitis
  • • Provide a less invasive alternative to endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP).

Continue reading

CDI Miami | Thursday August 15, 2019

Things You Ought To Know About Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

Things You Ought To Know About Magnetic Resonance Imaging

MRI or Magnetic Resonance Imaging is a widely used scanning method for viewing every organ and body structure. It is developed primarily to be used in medicine for every defect in the soft tissues. MRI Miami beach is one of the greatest advancements in the diagnostic medical techniques that have revoluntised the entire medical science over the past century.

What is MRI?

MRI is a diagnostic imaging procedure done using magnetic and radio waves to create detailed images of the body’s structures (including soft tissues),  which is impossible to do with the use of X-rays or other forms of radiation. A typical MRI Scan takes something between 30 minutes and one hour.

In an MRI scan, the patient is positioned in a large MRI chamber on a sliding imaging table.

Process

In the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), the nuclear magnetic alignments of different atoms are exploited inside a magnetic field to generate detailed images.

MRI centers in Miami have various MRI machines whose main components are the large magnets that are used to generate magnetic fields around the body part or target of analysis. The magnetic fields affect the paramagnetic atoms such as hydrogen, gadolinium, and manganese to line up them in a magnetic dipole along every magnetic field, formed by the radiofrequency (RF) coils inside the Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine.

The machine captures accurately the relaxation of the atoms when they return to normal alignment. The RF pulse is temporarily ceased after this. The data which is collected after is used to generate an image on the basis of the resonance characteristics of the different tissue types.

Conversion

The computer transforms these signals into cross-sectional images giving detailed information (“slices”) of each part of the body which is scanned and reconstructed based on all the images into a single three-dimensional image for getting a clear image. MRI is used for various diagnostic purposes and to rule out certain diseases from the roots.

MRI is used for finding the determining the exact problem is inside the body and find its proper location. It is frequently used for detecting cancers that are difficult to diagnose. It is used to point out the precise location and size of tumors and for studying brain & spinal cord abnormalities.

MRI Miami is used to produce detailed images of the heart, major blood vessels that depict blood flow, joints, and soft tissues. It is used to find the lung disorders, digestive disorders, infections, and inflammatory conditions, disorders of urinary tract and kidneys and many more disorders of the body.

CDI Miami | Monday October 8, 2018

Role of Open MRI Miami Services in adequate Diagnosis of Diseases

Open MRI

An Open MRI Miami scan is an imaging scan procedure that helps in deep analysis of an ailment by capturing high-quality images of the organs. Your physician may recommend this test when they are unclear regarding any ailment that may require precise diagnosis so that the correct diagnosis of the ailment can be started.

It has been seen that most of the patients usually ignore the importance of a prominent imaging scan service provider and choose any of the available service providers in their area. Well, it is necessarily important for you to rely on an expert radiologist that can offer you the best in class services with proper assurance of quality reports. It would be a nice decision to consult your physician before picking any of the service providers so that you can get the assurance of quality reports. Here are some aspects that depict the role of MRI centers in Miami.

Better Services to Meet Diverse patient Needs

Some of the MRI procedures require special services and the entire scan is performed under controlled environment under the supervision of an expert. It is thus recommended that you should always emphasize finding the right service provider that can offer you these services without any hassle.

It would be a great decision to rely on the professionals as recommended by your physician so as to get the assurance of quality services. Moreover, it would be nice if you check the reviews and ratings of the radiologist on the internet to get an idea about their proficiency and reliability. Apart from this, one can always visit the official website of these service providers to check whether they are offering a special kind of service or not.

Timely Delivery of Reports to augment the treatment

It is necessarily important for you to emphasize the overall service of a radiologist that can help in the timely treatment of your ailment. Many patients are unaware of the fact that a little delay or a technical glitch in the delivery of accurate reports can adversely affect their overall treatment. Many physicians recommend south Florida diagnostic imaging service provider that can offer them the quality services.

You can expect accurate and timely reports from these reputed radiologists and can get the assurance of timely treatment of your diseases.

These aspects clearly depict the important role of reputed MRI service provider.

CDI Miami | Wednesday March 29, 2017

Mammography Trends to Watch This Year

mammogram miami

 

A new year brings much in tow – new ideas to share, new trends to address, new technologies to install. While it is difficult to say exactly what will affect us the most as we begin 2017, there are certain trends that seem to leap out ahead of others. Here are five trends we expect to have a vital impact on medical imaging in 2017:

1. 3D mammography. Digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) has been a frequent topic in trade publications for a few years. As more studies are released touting the success of this technology in finding lesions and reducing recall rates, its popularity is only going to increase. Especially as media has been touting the benefits of this technology in recent years.

2. Multimedia enhanced radiology reporting (MERR). Text-only reports are fading away. A study from Emory University and the Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute found that 80% of respondents said MERRs “improved understanding of radiology findings by correlating images to text reports.” The study also found that the multimedia reports provided easier access to images while monitoring the progression of a condition, and saved time understanding findings without supporting images. While improving the radiology report, the multimedia-enhanced version also provides more financial value to radiologists.

3. Radiology goes to the cloud. Radiology is quickly migrating to the cloud. According to an article in Applied Radiology, the global cloud computing market in healthcare was valued at $1.8 billion in 2011, and is expected to grow at 21% at compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21% to $6.8 billion by 2018. While initial upfront costs can vary between the intensity of building an organization’s own private cloud, or the ease and flexibility of using public cloud architecture, the process efficiency, financial predictability of paying for only what the organization needs and long-term cost savings are making the cloud a worthwhile investment.

4. Telemedicine. The global telemedicine market was $27 billion, and the market has already surged past that number for 2017. By 2018, two-thirds of interactions with healthcare organizations will be conducted via mobile devices. Last year was an important year for telemedicine, as wearable technology become prominent. Telemedicine is expected to be valued around $3.8 billion by 2019, according to Transparency Market Research. Expect telemedicine to bring together health facilities like never before – from large systems to those located in rural areas.

5. Centralization of clinical data. Collaboration is a must for health facilities. No department can be left out of the patient experience equation now.