Perspectives for preventive screening with total body MRI.
Radiology has started to increasingly recognise its potential for screening with the advent of "whole-body" imaging techniques. This article briefly reviews prerequisites for successful screening, presents a quick summary of single-organ screening with magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, and introduces how this knowledge can be integrated into whole-body MR (wb-MR) screening. MR colonography has demonstrated its potential for screening. Wb-MR in the form of wb-MR angiography has already entered both clinical and screening settings; also, the search for metastases with wb-MR has been evaluated and has performed well when compared with other imaging modalities. But screening a group of healthy subjects requires more than feasibility and high accuracy of the screening test; thus, technical and ethical considerations are also presented. Wb-MR is only at its beginning and will in the near future certainly inspire many new research activities as well as transform the radiological market.
Ladd
Susanne C
SC
Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital Essen, Hufelandstrasse 55, 45122, Essen, Germany. susanne.ladd@uni-duisburg-essen.de
Ladd
Mark E
ME
D000368:Aged; D000792:Angiography / Q000379:methods; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007668:Kidney / Q000473:pathology; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008327:Mammography / Q000379:methods; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods; D008579:Meningioma / Q000473:pathology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods; D051598:Whole Body Imaging; D014965:X-Rays