COLORADO SPRINGS - Just weeks after the FDA approved an internal defibrillator, safe to use with MRI's, a doctor in Southern Colorado became the first in our state to implant the device. A defibrillator detects abnormal heart rhythms and then delivers a life-saving shock to return the heart to normal rhythm; saving around 70,000 lives in the past five years. Dr. Jaime … [Read more...] about Your Healthy Family: New MRI safe defibrillator available

Summer was a busy season for FDA drug warnings. Now that fall is in full gear, pharmacists should get familiarized with the drug safety communications sent out this past summer. Here are the FDA’s medication safety alerts since June, starting with the most recent: 1. Ceftazidime and avibactam (Avycaz) The FDA warned pharmacists in late September that confusion over … [Read more...] about 10 FDA Drug Warnings Pharmacists Should Know

Dozens of radiology patients in the Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region may require additional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans due to “insufficiently detailed testing”, a health region spokesperson said in a release Friday. Forty-seven patients who received spine and head MRI scans between October 2014 and July 2015 should have included a contrast study, but instead … [Read more...] about 47 RQHR patients may need additional MRIs after error

Macrophage-targeting positron emission tomography (PET) may be a useful tool to detect subclinical synovitis in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA), according to a new study. This PET technique could even distinguish between patients with and without a flare, the study suggested. A previous study found this approach promising for identifying subclinical synovitis … [Read more...] about PET Imaging Reveals Subclinical Disease in Early Arthritis

An abbreviated magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocol can exclude malignancy in women with suspicious X-ray mammography screening, according to a study published in Radiology. Sebastian Bickelhaupt, M.D., from the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, and colleagues conducted a prospective study involving 50 women with suspicious screening X-ray mammograms. The … [Read more...] about After Mammography, Abbreviated MRI Protocol Can Exclude Malignancy