at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine
REVOLUTIONARY
Weight-Bearing 3-D Imaging - Orthopedics
New technology allows orthopedic surgeons to get a 3-D image of hip, knee and spine patients before and after surgery, allowing for quicker scans, less radiation and fewer X-rays. The new imaging equipment is based on Nobel Prize-winning French technology, first developed for the spine and recently FDA approved for use in the hip and knee.
This “weight-bearing 3-D imaging” technology allows radiologists to get images of patients from the front and side simultaneously while scanning the patient in a standing or even sitting position.
UNCOVERED
Key Genetic Error - Cancer
A team at the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine has uncovered a genetic mutation in some patients with myelodysplastic syndromes—a group of blood cancers that can progress to a fatal form of leukemia. The team also found evidence that patients with the mutation are more likely to develop acute leukemia. The study suggests that a genetic test could one day more accurately diagnose the disorder and predict the course of the disease.
FIRST OF ITS KIND
Simultaneous PET-MRI Scanner - Radiology
Washington University research scientists are using a new device that simultaneously performs positron-emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, producing more detailed images than PET-MRI devices that scan separately. The scanner is located in Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology’s Center for Clinical Imaging Research. Gilbert Jost, MD, head of radiology at Washington University, reports, “As far as we know, this unit is the first of its kind to be placed in a U.S. hospital.”