RSS feed for medical imaging journals

RSS is a protocol for feeding updates of websites, either blogs, newspapers and even academic journals. This protocol was created by recently deceased Aaron Swartz (NYTimes article). If you are a researcher, you might find it difficult to know the latest papers published or keep track of your favorite journal publications. I personally use Google Reader to keep track of journals and blogs. You just have to subscribe to the journal and/or blog.

For this blog, you can simply use knowyourimages.blogspot.com.
For journals, you have to find the correct address. I put here some of my favorite journals RSS feeds:

• Physics in Medicine and Biology: http://iopscience.iop.org/0031-9155/?rss=1
• IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/rss/TOC42.XML
• Neuroimage: http://rss.sciencedirect.com/publication/science/6968
• Medical Physics: http://online.medphys.org/search_rss?q=+&searchtype=searchin&faceted=faceted&searchzone=2&fromdate=&todate=&ignoredates=true&alias=&key=MPHYA6&fromvolume=&fromissue=&tovolume=&toissue=&sortby=newestdate&recordspage=25&possible1=&possible1zone=multi&bool1=and&possible2=&possible2zone=multi&bool2=and&possible3=&possible3zone=multi&figtabcap=&submit1=Display+Results&rss=rss&rsstitle=Medical%20Physics

Do you recommend other RSS feeds?

Teaching MRI

Teaching MRI is a hard task, specially if the students don't have a strong physics background. Three of my favorite resources (and free) to use in classes are:

MRI online course: http://www.imaios.com/en/e-Courses/e-MRI
This online course has great animations to explain concepts and brief explanations. I think some of the animations are very helpful to explain details to students. You have to create an account to see the animations properly, but this requires little effort. 

Virtual MRI (VMRI): http://www.iftm.de/elearning/vmri/idx_vmri.htm
This program can be easily run in your computer and gives a good idea about parameters for several sequences (Spin-Echo, Gradient-Echo, Inversion Recovery, Fast Spin-Echo), such as TR, TE, TI and ETL. Furthermore, it shows the k-space of the images and allows us to manipulate it and see the effect. Other image quality parameters can also be changed: FOV, pixel size, ... I strongly recommend this for computer classes where students have to apply their knowledge.

OSIRIX DICOM database: http://www.osirix-viewer.com/datasets/
This database contains several MRI datasets acquired for different regions (with and without pathology) and with different sequences. I usually don't use OSIRIX, because I don't have MacOS... I use one of the free visualization programs I referred in this post.

PET scan for Alzheimer's disease - new hope

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is still one of the most difficult diseases to diagnose. The diagnosis is based on a mental state assessment and complementary exams can be ordered, but are usually not enough to be conclusive. A new PET tracer has the possibility to change that. The first-and-only FDA-approved diagnostic PET tracer for estimation of beta-amyloid neuritic plaque density when evaluating for AD and other causes of cognitive decline. In Europe, it will also be available in the second-quarter of this year. This tracer can be seen as an evolution of 11C-PIB, as can be read here.

Detailed article from the Journal of American Medical Association (from which the image above was taken):
http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=645188
Official webpage: http://www.amyvid.com/Pages/index.aspx
Why early diagnosis is important? http://www.alz.org/research/science/earlier_alzheimers_diagnosis.asp

Big Picture

Ever wondered how to explain medical imaging concepts to high-school students or people which are not from the science field? Welcome Trust has dedicated its latest issue of Big Picture Magazine to neuroimaging techniques. You can download the pdf here and also other teaching materials.

One of the nice images of this pdf is shown below: a CT angiograghy where you can see the brain vessels.