Impact of Breast Density Legislation on Breast Cancer Risk Assessment and Supplemental Screening: A Survey of 110 Radiology Facilities.

Breast density notification laws, passed in 19 states as of October 2014, mandate that patients be informed of their breast density. The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of this legislation on radiology practices, including performance of breast cancer risk assessment and supplemental screening studies. A 20-question anonymous web-based survey was emailed to radiologists in the Society of Breast Imaging between August 2013 and March 2014.

A picture is worth a thousand words: needs assessment for multimedia radiology reports in a large tertiary care medical center.

Rationale And Objectives: Radiology reports are the major, and often only, means of communication between radiologists and their referring clinicians. The purposes of this study are to identify referring physicians' preferences about radiology reports and to quantify their perceived value of multimedia reports (with embedded images) compared with narrative text reports.

Materials And Methods: We contacted 1800 attending physicians from a range of specialties at large tertiary care medical center via e-mail and a hospital newsletter linking to a 24-question electronic survey between July and November 2012.

Multifaceted management of the postthrombotic syndrome.

The postthrombotic syndrome (PTS) is a frequent cause of chronic pain, swelling, ulceration, and disability in patients with lower extremity deep vein thrombosis (DVT). As interventional radiologists are consulted on more patients with chronic DVT and PTS, their management strategies must be informed by a balanced understanding of the different facets of chronic DVT care and the available treatment options. This article provides an overview of the important elements of a multifaceted approach to the management of patients with PTS that includes pharmacological, physiological, and endovascular aspects of care.

Postthrombotic syndrome: feasibility of a strategy of imaging-guided endovascular intervention.

Purpose: To describe the short-term efficacy of a strategy of imaging-guided endovascular intervention for the treatment of patients with established postthrombotic syndrome (PTS).

Materials And Methods: The medical records of 183 patients with venous disease who were seen in a single interventional radiology clinic were retrospectively reviewed. Study inclusion criteria were (i) endovascular intervention performed to treat established PTS from January 1, 2000, to March 10, 2009; (ii) patient age greater than 18 years; and (iii) availability of follow-up records.

Audience response systems in medical student education benefit learners and presenters.

Rationale And Objectives: We sought to assess how the use of an audience response system (ARS) in medical student radiology instruction affects the self-confidence, ability to gauge mastery, and insights for future preparation in students when they participate as audience members and when they give peer teaching presentations.

Materials And Methods: Twenty-seven medical students discussed radiology case files in groups and used an ARS to present their assigned cases to peers. Students' views of interactive audience response versus traditional pedagogy were surveyed using a 5-point Likert scale (1, strongly agree; 2, agree; 3, neither agree nor disagree; 4, disagree; 5, strongly disagree).

Gene therapy for heart failure.

Congestive heart failure (CHF) remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States and in many other countries. Current heart failure therapies, including multidrug treatment regimens, biventricular pacing, and mechanical support such as left ventricular assist devices, are often hindered by limited benefits or significant associated procedural complications or side effects. Therefore, new forms of treatment, which could ideally target the underlying biological processes affecting the ailing cardiomyocyte, would be of significant potential benefit to the population of individuals with CHF.

An Egr-1 master switch for arteriogenesis: studies in Egr-1 homozygous negative and wild-type animals.

Background: Arteriogenesis has been implicated as an important biologic response to acute vascular occlusion. The early growth response 1 (Egr-1) gene encodes an immediate-early response transcription factor that is upregulated by changes in vascular strain and that in turn upregulates a number of putative angiogenic and arteriogenic growth factors. We therefore hypothesized that early growth response 1 might be a critical arteriogenic messenger that induces revascularization in the setting of acute vascular occlusions.