Early Diagnosis

Advances in medical imaging have improved disease screening and diagnosis for a range of acute and chronic conditions. From disease screenings to early diagnosis, without imaging, many of these conditions would otherwise go unseen until they reach a much more severe and often life-threatening stage.

Some examples of the ways imaging has improved diagnosis of conditions are:

Alzheimer’s disease

• Research published in July 2007 has demonstrated the promise of positron emission tomography (PET) scans in identifying the early signs of Alzheimer’s disease before the symptoms appear, which could enable a definitive diagnosis of Alzheimer’s in the living brain, increasing the effectiveness of treatment.

Stroke

• The American Heart Association recommends magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography (CT) imaging for initial evaluation of patients showing stroke-like symptoms. These procedures can to rule out conditions that mimic stroke (including migraines or hypoglycemia), can identify other conditions that require immediate treatment, and can determine potential causes for stroke.

Coronary Artery Disease

• Coronary computed tomographic angiography (CCTA) scans are one of the latest imaging technologies used to help detect blockages in arteries, without the risks or discomfort of standard procedures that insert tubes into arteries around the organ. In fact, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that CCTA detects coronary artery disease with over 90 percent accuracy, saving patients from exploratory surgery or catheterization.

Osteoporosis

• Bone densitometry can identify bone loss early enough to significantly reduce the risk of fractures. A 2005 study published in Osteoporosis International estimated that bone mineral density scanning of an additional one million women in 2001, followed by appropriate osteoporosis therapy would have averted 35,000 fractures and generated $78 million in Medicare savings by 2003.

Breast Cancer

• Mammography, hailed in the Journal of the American Medical Association as “one of the most important recent achievements in cancer control,” illustrates clearly that early detection and treatment saves lives. Analysis of data from the National Cancer Institute’s cancer registry traces a 24% decrease in the death rate from breast cancer (even after taking patient age into account) from 1989-2003, as mammography became a recommended routine health screening.

• Although mammography has dramatically reduced breast cancer mortality, it is likely that ultrasonography and MRI can further improve outcomes when they are used as a substitute for or adjunct to conventional film mammography for women in higher risk groups, including newly diagnosed women and those who have strong genetic risk factors. A study found MRI to be significantly more sensitive for detecting breast cancer than film mammography.

Colon Cancer

• The American College of Radiology Imaging Network and sponsored by the National Cancer Institute, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in September 2008, found evidence that CT colonography is “approximately as successful” as standard colonoscopy in detecting polyps in the colon. “The ACRIN trial has now validated that CT colonography could serve as an initial screening exam for the population in which screening is indicated,” said trial statistician Mei-Hsiu Chen, PhD, from Brown University in Providence, RI.

• A recent study published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology provided an in-depth analysis of long-term and phase-specific treatment costs related to colorectal cancer (CRC). Researchers found that colorectal cancer treatment can be highly expensive – per survival year, stage IV patients incurred $31,000 in excess costs compared with $3,000 for stage 0 patients. Early detection not only saves lives (colorectal cancer is 90% curable when found early), but saves dollars.