Radiology Grand Rounds Volume-I

THE CARNIVAL OF MEDICAL IMAGING

Welcome to the debut of Radiology Grand Rounds, the monthly summary of the best of the Radiology blogosphere.

Concept Behind “Radiology Grand Rounds” Or Carnival of Medical Imaging

Lately it seems that there is a Blog Carnival for every conceivable topic or group of like minded individuals. For the readers who are new to the concept of Blog Carnivals-

A Blog Carnival is a particular kind of blog community. There are many kinds of blogs and websites, and they contain articles on many kinds of topics. Blog Carnivals typically collect together links pointing to blog articles on a particular topic. A Blog Carnival is like a magazine. It has a title, a topic, editors, contributors, and an audience. Editions of the carnival typically come out on a regular basis (e.g. every monday, or on the first of the month). Each edition is a special blog article that consists of links to all the contributions that have been submitted, often with the editors opinions or remarks.

Grand Rounds is an old tradition that doctors have. Once a week, they get together and talk about one case in detail. Keeping up with this tradition this Carnival of Medical Imaging has been named “Radiology Grand Rounds”.

In recent few years Radiology has become a very important part of the clinical practice. Role of physician in current day practice is not only to examine and treat the patient, but also to guide the investigations.
I regularly submit posts to the Grand Rounds and I think that the blogosphere would benefit from one stop shopping for Radiology specific posts. Most of the posts from The field of Radiology or Medical Imaging tend to be more scientific or physician oriented and they somehow appear out of place in the traditional grand rounds where the posts are more of a General interest. Every physician would agree that Subspecializtion is the need of the hour in medical field, hence the concept of a specialized Radiology Grand Rounds. Radiology Grand Rounds will be hosted on last Sunday of each month, the schedule and archive will be available at- Radiology Grand Rounds I would like to thank all the contributors for this edition of Radiology Grand Rounds. It was a great experience and I discovered a few new Radiology related blogs/websites in this process. Hope this is just a beginning to a whole new world of Rad-Blogging.

Radiology In The Past

Scan man , a radiologist practising in Tamil Nadu, India has sent a post entitled Radiology FlashBack-I

In this, he talks about a Foreword written by Dr. Roger C. Sanders, the Guest Editor of the December 1975 issue of Radiologic Clinics of North America (RCNA)., ‘Symposium on B-Scan Ultrasound’ issue. This is what Dr Sanders had to say about ultrasound then-
“Ultrasonography remains a filed that demands both intellectual capability and manual dexterity, and it …is not a discipline that can be acquired after reading a textbook or attending a one-week course. Practical experience in transducer handling and echographic interpretation is essential. It is also true that the best way to learn ultrasonography is as an apprentice to an experienced sonographer.”

Remains as true today as it was then, I am sure all my Radiologist colleagues practicing ultrasound would agree.

Things to think about

A very thought provoking post from Nuclear Vision this week, Ramblings of a night shift
After a series of examples from his routine practice he talks about something which is in so true so evident yet so often ignored are we overusing radiological investigations?

“Imaging is accurate, and mostly safe. But at times, you can't help but think it is a crutch or at the very least overutilized. The technology continues to amaze me, but it all comes with a cost...... A rough guide: One CTPA=1/1000 risk of an inducible cancer. This does NOT account for breast dose in young females. We are irradiating too many patients..but you can't stop it as a Radiologist.”

Indian Radiology And Imaging Association’s blog gives a pointer to an article on Evidence Based Imaging in Medscape

Radiology Mystery (Editor’s Choice)

Dr Craig Hildreth of The Cheerful Oncologist sends us a little mystery… don’t we all get the obvious diagnosis?

"I had the pleasure recently of meeting a man hospitalized for colon cancer. He had undergone a successful resection of his tumor and was being considered for chemotherapy. As I examined him I produced my stethoscope and placed it on his chest in order to ausculate his heart sounds. He turned toward me and gave me a sly grin as I bent over him. His grin broadened as the seconds ticked by, until I took the stethoscope out of my ears and looked at him like a bartender at a Texas roadhouse who has just been asked to mix a Harvey Wallbanger.
"He said to me, 'When I was drafted in 1950 at least six doctors were called in to examine me during my physical. I laughed at them, too, but when all was said and done they still sent me to Korea.'
"Later that day I took a copy of his chest x-ray and showed it to my office staff. I asked them if I should file a formal complaint against the x-ray techs for bungling the printing of this radiograph. When my staff agreed that a mistake was made, I then gave them the same Cheshire Cat grin and chortled:"'Don't you guys know a trick question when you hear one?'
"So my question to you all is this: What is the diagnosis?"

……………………….

Still don’t get it-Situs Inversus!!

Image Cases

Dr Bhavin on his Case Based Blog “Spot Diagnosis” has a case of Renal injury with very characteristic or as the name of the blog suggests Spotter CT images and links to comprehensive articles discussing imaging of Renal Trauma. A must read for all Radiology Residents.

In his other blog on Cardiac Imaging Bhavin has CT angiographic images of a Young patient with multi-vessel coronary disease along with its angiographic correlation.

Filmjacket.com shows us CT images of 17 year old playing Darts at the bar with the dart embedded in the anterior aspect of the right ethmoid sinus.

Latest In Radiology

Tim Gee has submitted a post on data storage technology. Titled “Data Storage Technology Advances”, this post describes how new open systems storage solutions are changing PACS. Older PACS stored archive data in proprietary ways, creating an unanticipated changing cost (data migration) when replacing PACS system vendors. New storage technologies have allowed PACS vendors to focus their R&D where they add the most value, and made it easier for buyers to change vendors.

Dr.Subrahmanyam Karuturi points towards an article about role of Multidetector Computed Tomography for Acute Pulmonary Embolism in The New England Journal of Medicine.


Dr Sidharth, a Pediatrician has a post on pediatric interventional radiology. He gives pointer towards a symposium on Pediatric vascular access with the Ultrasound being the best modality.

Soccer Mania captures Radiology Grand Rounds too

As rest of world is enjoying The World Cup Football this week Sumer’s Radiology Site has a post on The FootBall Sign, a supine film radiological sign of pneumoperitoneum.


That wraps up this month's highlights of the Radiology blogosphere. Hope the readers enjoyed the first edition of the Radiology Grand Rounds. If you liked any of these blogs, keep visiting them. Please email me at sumerdoc@yahoo.com if you are interested in hosting future Radiology Grand Rounds. Archive for the Radiology Grand Rounds here-Radiology Grand Rounds
Be sure to tune in Next Month Last Sunday 30th July , when Grand Rounds will be hosted by Me again at Sumer's Radiology Site