SIR Presenters Tout New Directions for Interventional Radiology

Matthew Skoufalos | | Radiology Business | Business Intelligence
Underscoring a press statement from SIR President-elect Marshall Hicks that interventional radiology is “the future of health care,” researchers at SIR 2012 debuted findings from a handful of studies spanning new IR treatment options in multiple sclerosis (MS), chronic obesity, and CT-guided lung biopsy, among others. • IR may yield new hope for MS patients with venous lesions via angioplasties in the neck and chest, which researchers report discovering in 95 percent of the groups they studied. More than half of individuals treated in this fashion reported some symptomatic benefit. • Additional research investigating chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCVI), which also affects MS patients, demonstrated similar amelioration of symptoms via angioplasty. • For patients who battle obesity, an imaging-guided procedure called bariatric arterial embolization could provide an alternative to gastric surgeries by targeting a specific portion of the stomach that produces a hunger-causing hormone. • By moderating x-ray tube current and reducing the amount of energy used by the CT scanner, researchers were able to maintain image quality while lowering radiation dose by 66 percent for CT-guided lung biopsies.

Matthew Skoufalos

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