Digital mammography has proved equivalent to film-screen in screening programs for most women, along with being even more accurate than film-screen for women with dense breasts. But the technique can take longer to interpret, which can slow a practice's workflow and therefore affect its bottom line.

At the RSNA meeting in Chicago, researchers from Europe and the University of California, Los Angeles presented studies that support full-field digital mammography (FFDM) as being equal to or better than analog for screening programs, with users of several different types of FFDM technology reporting good results.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health), Jan 6 - Reduced activity in the part of the brain that helps a person exert appropriate self-control may contribute to the binge-purge syndrome bulimia nervosa, research published today suggests.

A newly released study in this month's issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine has found that SPECT/CT is better than planar imaging in accurately determining lymph node involvement at radioablation performed for thyroid cancer.

Risk factor schemes such as the Framingham risk assessment work fine for patient populations, but they do a poor job of predicting the atherosclerotic plaque burden of individuals, according to a new study by Dr. David Dowe and colleagues in the January American Journal of Roentgenology.

Perfusion CT can predict the response to radiation and chemotherapy treatment in patients with pancreatic cancer, say researchers from South Korea. The group is hopeful that the results can be used to develop therapies tailored to individual patients, potentially improving survival times while minimizing the toxic side effects of therapy.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health), Jan 2 - In Australia, women still present with large breast cancers despite the introduction of mammographic screening there in 1991, according to a report in the December 15 issue of the International Journal of Cancer.

A large study of breast cancer patients reveals that only 5% of patients with cancer-positive internal mammary nodes who receive radiation therapy (RT) will die of breast cancer recurrence within five years. This survival rate is comparable to patients with positive axillary lymph nodes who receive radiation therapy.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health), Dec 31 - Healthcare workers in the emergency department are often colonized with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), potentially putting patients at risk, according to two reports in the Annals of Emergency Medicine.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health), Dec 31 - Women who participated in weight-bearing sports during their teens, the formative years for bone growth, have stronger bones after menopause than women who participated in lighter activities during their youth.

A Canadian cancer center has been hit with a class action lawsuit claiming that hundreds of patients received improper levels of radiation during radiation therapy treatments over a three-year period.