Dear AuntMinnie Member,
If you missed our story last week on new U.S. legislation to close the in-office exemption to the Stark ban on physician self-referral, you might want to check in with our Imaging Center Digital Community to get up to speed.
The legislation was introduced in the House of Representatives and has been welcomed by the radiology community as a way to curb imaging use by nonradiologist physicians. It's a bright spot in an otherwise bleak picture that's been forming on the regulatory front as federal lawmakers target radiology for reimbursement cuts.
Click here to get the latest update, or check out the community at centers.auntminnie.com.
CT, kids, and off-road injuries
In other news, a group of pediatric radiologists from Arkansas has published a new clinical study that uses imaging to document the awful toll being suffered by children riding off-road all-terrain vehicles (ATVs). The researchers hope their study will lead to increased awareness -- and possibly regulatory action -- to limit children's access to ATVs.
The group categorized the findings of CT scans acquired over 10 years in 500 children involved in ATV accidents, according to an article in our Pediatric Imaging Digital Community by associate editor Cynthia E. Keen. The injuries ranged from skull fractures to multiple-organ damage, and the cases included a half-dozen fatalities.
Find out why kids and ATVs don't mix by clicking here, or visit the community at pediatric.auntminnie.com.
High-res high-speed CTA
In other news, we're highlighting recent work in our CT Digital Community by French researchers on a new CT angiography (CTA) technique that offers the best of both worlds -- high resolution and high speed.
Working with a prototype multidetector-row scanner, the group compared scans acquired at two speeds of table pitch and using standard CTA protocols to determine the new technique's impact on radiation dose and image quality.
Read international editor Eric Barnes' story on the research by clicking here, or visit the community at ct.auntminnie.com.
