HEALTHMedical imaging's powers of detection are expandingImaging has largely replaced the need for exploratory surgery and is poised to unravel the complexities of biological systems, according to its supporters.By Susan J. Landers, amednews staff. Feb. 27, 2006. Washington -- Medical imaging has come a long way during the last 30 years, said National Institutes of Health Director Elias Zerhouni, MD. The field was considered a backwater of medicine when Dr. Zerhouni got his start in radiology, and now imaging techniques are rated among the most important recent medical advances. In the next 25 years, imaging will continue to play a large role at NIH, Dr. Zerhouni said at a Jan. 31 educational briefing in Washington, D.C. For instance, advances in x-ray, ultrasound, magnetic resonance and radionuclide imaging likely will enable physicians to detect disease at its earliest stages, before it even becomes evident, he said. The briefing was sponsored by the National Electrical Manufacturers Assn., a trade group responsible for setting industry standards; the Academy of Radiology Research, an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.; and Research!America, a group based in Alexandria, Va., that promotes medical and health research. Imaging has legions of fans. Its ability to detect smaller and smaller tumors has changed the standard of breast cancer treatment from radical to minimally invasive. Exploratory surgery has given way to powerful scans that enable physicians to evaluate disease progress without wielding a scalpel. But there is still a way to go. While mammograms are advancing breast cancer treatment, there are as yet no comparable "manograms" to advance prostate cancer's diagnosis and treatment, notes a statement from the AdMeTech Foundation, a nonprofit Boston-based group of academicians and members of industry that promotes the uses of medical imaging. [...]Full text of American Medical News content is available to AMA members and paid subscribers.
Copyright 2006 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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