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Imaging Modalities

The Ins and Outs of Inflammation

It’s Friday night. After a long work week, you are ready to blow off some steam with your crew at the local …

Queens of the Stone Age

I was very familiar with kidney stones long before I learned about them in medical school. My mother suffered from numerous kidney stones …

The Riddle of Thyroid Nodules

Thyroid nodules are really, really common—the Starbucks of our necks. It is estimated up to 75% of the population may have at least …

Key MRI Concepts •MRI uses magnetic fields to manipulate and image hydrogen atoms in the body. •Different tissue types are variably influenced by these magnetic fields, resulting in their variable appearances on MRI …

Listen to Your Right Upper Quadrant

One of the most common types of ultrasound studies is evaluation of the right upper quadrant, henceforth referred to as the RUQ. The other …

What is a CT scan?

Key CT Concepts •Images are created by a rotating X-ray beam, which passes through the patient from different angles and is detected on …

Mammogram-gate

Mammography was one of the first cancer screening tests, preceded only by the Pap test for cervical cancer. Modern mammography techniques were developed in …

The Telltale Bone

I review a lot of bone MRI images, toiling alone for hours in my secluded office, in near-darkness. Let me tell you a secret (in a creepy Sixth …

I Hit My Head

Slipped on a pickle getting out of bed, Tried white water rafting but swam instead, Cage fighting with my Grandpa Fred, Oh, the many ways …

Language of the Chest X-ray

Legend has it doctors add about 10,000 new words to their vocabulary in the course of medical training, most of which are rarely if …