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Back to From The Podium
ARRS Meeting 2001 -> April 29th
101st American Roentgen Ray Society Meeting: April 29th
reported by Joseph Gagliardi, M.D.
With the Boeing Corporation moving it's headquarters and the resultant loss of
approximately 500 area jobs, Microsoft stock holders out billions of dollars
as stock values slump, and the city of Seattle rocked by riots and
earthquakes, the 101st American Roentgen Ray Society (ARRS) annual meeting
began. Despite all, the location was spectacular, adjacent to the waters of Puget
Sound with views of the Cascades, the Olympics, and Mount Rainier.
Musculoskeletal MR imaging is this meeting's categorical course. It is directed by Arthur A. De Smet, M.D. with assistance from co-directors Charles S. Resnick, M.D.
and David A. Rubin, M.D. One feature I especially enjoyed about this course is that, once optimizing protocols for musculoskeletal MR imaging was addressed, each subsequent speaker started with a review. This included the normal anatomic structures as well as some normal variants that could become pitfalls if diagnosed as abnormal entities. Knowledge of normal anatomy is essential for any successful radiologist (regardless of one's area of expertise), both when instructing residents as well as in a practical, clinical setting.
During his talk on knee imaging, Dr. Clyde Helms (Professor of Radiology and Surgery at Duke University Medical Center) made a plea regarding the controversial use of fast spin-echo (FSE) imaging sequences for evaluation of meniscal tears. He, as well as many other investigators, have found that the sensitivity for diagnosing meniscal tears with the popular FSE sequences is approximately 80%, unacceptably lower than the reported rates of 90–95% using conventional proton density weighted images. He provided many excellent examples supporting his position during the lecture. He also uses fat saturation along with the conventional proton density sequences. When I return to my department, where we currently use FSE sequences, I will re-evaluate our protocols.
Drs. Hayes and Hernandez (University of Michigan) reviewed bone
marrow imaging and agreed that there is "no magic bullet" or one sequence
for bone marrow imaging that optimally covers all disease entities. The
talk was quite informative; it focused primarily on neoplastic and traumatic
causes of bone marrow abnormalities.
The syllabus so far is well written and illustrated and I look forward to the
upcoming week for more lectures from this categorical course staff.
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