Scan Times

National Radiologic Technology Week: Nov. 8-14, 2009

By Stanford Imaging Services

During National Radiologic Technology Week (NRTW), an annual recognition established by the American Society of Radiologic Technologists (ASRT), we celebrate the great advances in radiologic technologies that have been made since the discovery of the X-ray on November 8, 1895.

The week of November 8-14th, we proudly celebrate all employees of Stanford's world-renowned Department of Radiology for continually providing outstanding care. Offering the best diagnostic imaging services and expertise while utilizing state-of-the-art technology, this Department never fails to demonstrate extraordinary teamwork by all its dedicated medical professionals. For more than one-hundred years, Stanford Radiology has made a difference in the lives of patients and their families, while continuing to . . .

Dr. Fahrig's Mummy Scans Featured in SF Museum

(Image courtesy of Mark Riesenberger)

State-of-the-art CT scans taken by Dr. Rebecca Fahrig are featured in the exhibit "Very Postmortem: Mummies and Medicine" at the Legion of Honor, one of the Fine Arts Museums in San Francisco. Her scans were used in constructing a three-dimensional "fly through" movie of the anatomy of the 2,500-year-old mummy of the Egyptian Priest Iret-net Hor-irw. Chris Beaulieu, MD, PhD, chief of musculoskeletal imaging in the Department of Radiology, also lent his expertise in determining the anatomy of the mummy's musculoskeletal structure.

According to a recent article in Stanford Medicine News, "Stanford Scans of Mummy to be Featured in San Francisco Museum Exhibition," visitors will
be able to watch "visual navigations through the mummy’s anatomy, zooming in to inspect what remains of his internal organ systems and then swooping back out through the wrappings. It’s even possible to see objects, such as small amulets, buried with the mummy and hidden from view since its burial."

Dr. William Kuo and Colleagues Reveal Lifesaving Treatment for Pulmonary Embolism

Dr. William Kuo was recently featured in a Stanford Medicine News article and national press release entitled "Study Reveals Life-Saving Treatment for Pulmonary Embolism." Dr. Kuo discussed the results from his study published in the November 2009 issue of the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology (20(11):1431-1440). Analyzing global data regarding the use of catheter-directed therapy for massive PE, he and his colleagues discovered that the therapy was life-saving in 86.5% of the 594 cases they studied. Dr. Kuo published his findings along with co-authors Lawrence Hofmann, MD, associate professor and chief of cardiovascular-interventional radiology; Daniel Sze, MD, associate professor of radiology; John Louie, MD, assistant professor of radiology; Jarrett Rosenberg, PhD, statistician; and Michael Gould, MD, associate professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine. The full Stanford press release can be accessed here: http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2009/october/embolism.html.

MIPS/RSL/ISIS Retreat 2009

By Julie Ruiz, PhD

MIPS
Sharing the Asilomar Conference Grounds, this year's retreats for the Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS) (above) and the Radiological Sciences Laboratory (RSL)/Information Sciences in Imaging at Stanford (ISIS) (below) overlapped by one day.
Beginning on Tuesday, September 15th, 128 people from . . .

Pediatric Musculoskeletal Interventional Program at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital (LPCH)

CT guided imaging at LPCH for treatment of juvenile idiopathic arthritis. The arrow shows the trajectory of the needle for placement of steroid medication into the temporomandibular joint.

By Julie Ruiz, PhD

“I was hoping my scar would be bigger,” remarked one of our pediatric patients with some disappointment as she undid her bandage. Several days earlier her bone tumor had been successfully treated through a CT-image guided ablation procedure at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital (LPCH).

To treat children with bone tumors, our Chief of Pediatric Musculoskeletal Imaging at LPCH, Dr. John MacKenzie, has teamed up with Drs. Larry Rinsky, James Gamble, and Meghan Imrie, pediatric orthopedics at LPCH. Because CT-guided RF ablations for osteoid osteoma tumors require a very small incision and leave virtually no scar, other parents have also

Stanford Radiology Voted "Best Radiologist Training Program"

Voted the 2009 "Best Radiologist Training Program" by AuntMinnie.com, Stanford Radiology was recently recognized for excellence in radiological education.

Dr. Sam Gambhir Named the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Endowed Professor in Cancer Research

Sanjiv "Sam" Gambhir, MD, PhD, professor of radiology and bioengineering, was appointed the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Endowed Professorship in Cancer Research in June of 2009. At Stanford, he leads several large NCI-funded programs and serves as chief of the Nuclear Medicine Division; director of the Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS); and head of the new Canary Center for Cancer Early Detection. To read more about his selection for this endowed professorship, please access Stanford University news at http://news.stanford.edu/news/2009/june17/med-endow-061709.html.
The Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR) was established in 1971 by Mr. Daniel K. Ludwig, who also established the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Fund for Cancer Research. In 2006, funds from this trust created Ludwig Centers "for the pursuit of basic science and research into the advancement of knowledge regarding the causes, origin, prevention and cure of cancer and other neoplastic diseases" at six leading academic institutions in the United States: University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine; Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School; Johns Hopkins University; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; and Stanford University Medical Center. At Stanford, these funds support two professorships.

Dr. Gary M. Glazer and Colleagues Use Image-Guided Insonification for Tumor Biomarker Detection

Emma Pfeiffer Merner Professor in the Medical Sciences and chair of the Department of Radiology, Gary M. Glazer, MD, led a team of researchers in a ground-breaking study recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), "A Strategy for Blood Biomarker Amplification and Localization Using Ultrasound," in which they apply low-frequency ultrasound directly to tumor cells, causing the release of significant amounts of biomarker measurable in the blood. Simultaneously, they provide a method for the localization of biomarker production by showing that this release of biomarkers is specific to the direct application of ultrasound to the tumor. Their research is featured in a recent Stanford news article by Bruce Goldman, "Researchers Use Ultrasound to Better Detect Tumor Biomarkers."

Dr. Glazer published his study along with co-author, Sanjiv "Sam" Gambhir, MD, PhD, Virginia & D.K. Ludwig Professor of Radiology & Bioengineering; chief of the Nuclear Medicine Division; and director of the Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS), as well as first author Aloma D'Souza, PhD, research scientist and member of the Multimodality Molecular Imaging Lab. Other co-authors include Kim Butts Pauly, PhD, professor of radiology; Samira Guccione, PhD, assistant professor of radiology; and staff scientists Jeffrey Tseng, MD (now at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in California) and Jarrett Rosenberg, PhD, of the radiology department.

New Staff Hires and Promotions: October 16, 2009

Kim Ko joined our Department on August 24, 2009, as our new human resources administrator. Born and raised in O'ahu, Hawai'i, Ms. Ko moved to California a few months ago. "I knew I always wanted to move to the Bay Area," she said. "So, I was really excited when this opportunity to work at Stanford came up. There are certain comforts of home that I miss, of course, like my family and friends, but I'm really excited to begin this new chapter in my life."

For her undergraduate education, Ms. Ko attended . . .

Let the Good Times Roll . . . RSNA Awards Continue

2009 RSNA Gold Medalist
Dr. Gary M. Glazer has been named the 2009 Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) Gold Medalist, which is the Society’s highest honor. As an RSNA Gold Medalist, Dr. Glazer is a member of a very select group of individuals who have deeply impacted radiology and the imaging sciences. At the forefront of research in cancer staging breakthroughs, he has profoundly influenced the science of using cross-sectional imaging in lung cancer staging and noninvasive tissue characterization of liver and adrenal tumors. His most recent investigations are in noninvasive cancer therapy monitoring and image-guided tumor insonification.

During his twenty years as chair of Stanford Radiology, Dr. Glazer has repeatedly led the Department in generating noteworthy advances in the field. Under his leadership, the Department has established four NIH Centers and has created the Richard M. Lucas Center for Imaging, which serves as a unique international resource. As a second generation radiologist, Dr. Glazer is also devoted to developing patient-centered radiology by optimizing the communication between the radiologist and the patient to improve the quality of healthcare.

Gary M. Glazer, MD, Emma Pfeiffer Merner Professor in the Medical Sciences, will receive the Gold Medal during a special awards ceremony in December at the 2009 Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) Annual Meeting in Chicago. To read more about his award, please access the following links: SUMC in the News and RSNA Gold Medal Announcements.

2009 RSNA Outstanding Researcher
In addition to Dr. Glazer’s award, Sam Gambhir, MD, PhD, has been chosen as the 2009 Outstanding Researcher by the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) for his unique contributions to the field of radiology. A world-renowned leader in the field, Dr. Gambhir is transforming the imaging sciences and patient treatment through his expertise and leadership in cellular and molecular imaging. He is the second scientist from our Department to be honored with this award in the past 8 years; Dr. Gary Glover won this honor in 2001. This award is given to only one physician and/or scientist each year, and only 15 such awards have ever been given out by the RSNA.

Dr. Gambhir has over 20 years of experience in molecular imaging in both animal models and patients. At Stanford, he serves as chief of the Nuclear Medicine Division; director of the Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS); and head of the new Canary Center for Cancer Early Detection. He also leads several large NCI-funded programs, such as the In Vivo Cellular Molecular Imaging Center (ICMIC); the Center for Nanotechnology Excellence Focused on Therapy Response (CCNE-TR); and the Stanford Molecular Imaging Scholars (SMIS) Program. Currently, he is advancing "the merger of in vitro and in vivo diagnostics using novel nanotechnology for earlier disease detection and individualized patient management" (from Inside Stanford Medicine).

Sam Gambhir, MD, PhD, the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Professor of Radiology and Bioengineering, will receive his award at the opening session of the 2009 RSNA Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting. For Dr. Gambhir’s RSNA Award announcement, please access the following URLs:
http://www.rsna.org/Foundation/OutstandingResearcherAward.cfm as well as "Inside Stanford" at http://med.stanford.edu/ism/people/index.html#gambhir.

2009 RSNA Trainee Award Winners
Stanford Radiology Residents Bao Do, MD, and Pejman Ghanouni, MD, PhD,
have also been honored with 2009 RSNA Trainee Awards for their outstanding research projects.

Dr. Do (on left) developed his project, "A Natural Language Processor to Detect Uncertainty and Recommendations in Radiology Reports," under the mentorship of Dr. Daniel Rubin, assistant professor of radiology (diagnostic), while Dr. Ghanouni (on right) pursued his research, "Minocycline Prevents Development of Neuropathic Pain by Mitigating Macrophage Recruitment to Site of Nerve Injury as Shown with USPIO-MRI," mentored by Dr. Sandip Biswal, assistant professor of radiology (musculoskeletal).