We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience. This includes personalizing content and advertising. To learn more, click here. By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies. Cookie Policy.

Features Partner Sites Information LinkXpress
Sign In
Advertise with Us
GLOBETECH PUBLISHING LLC

Download Mobile App




Functional Imaging Helps Test Spine Stability

By MedImaging International staff writers
Posted on 04 May 2016
Print article
Image: Vertebral motion analysis testing (Photo courtesy of Ortho Kinematics).
Image: Vertebral motion analysis testing (Photo courtesy of Ortho Kinematics).
A new functional imaging test called vertebral motion analysis (VMA) enables patients to demonstrate evidence of spinal instability.

Developed by Ortho Kinematics (OKI; Austin, TX, USA) VMA testing involves standard surgical C-arms to capture moving “video x-ray” images using fluoroscopy. The images are uploaded to online servers, where they are processed to yield motion measurements that can be used to assess spinal instability. The cloud-based system also provides access to the images and test results via any internet-connected computer, tablet, or smartphone, providing an online tool that makes consulting with patients and interacting with insurance companies much easier.

The VMA lumbar spine quantitative fluoroscopy test takes about five minutes more than the standard 15-minute flex-ex test, but offers more robust data with less radiation exposure for both the patient and technologist. In peer-reviewed studies, VMA has been shown to be more accurate, repeatable, and five times more sensitive in detecting lumbar radiographic instability as compared to flex-ex testing, but just as specific. OKI has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Community (CE) mark of approval for the VMA.

Since the 1940s, traditional flex-ex testing has been the standard of care for assessing instability based on spine motion analysis. Flex-ex testing requires physicians to measure spine motion from x-rays by hand. The results are highly variable, but because flex-ex data is so important, it is still ordered over five million times every year in the United States, more than spine computerized tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) imaging combined.

Related Links:
Ortho Kinematics

Gold Member
Solid State Kv/Dose Multi-Sensor
AGMS-DM+
Crossover Angiography System
Trinias C16/C12/F12 Unity Smart Edition
Digital Radiography Acquisition Software
VXvue with PureImpact
New
Color Doppler Ultrasound System
DRE Crystal 4PX

Print article

Channels

Ultrasound

view channel
Image: Structure of the proposed transparent ultrasound transducer and its optical transmittance (Photo courtesy of POSTECH)

Ultrasensitive Broadband Transparent Ultrasound Transducer Enhances Medical Diagnosis

The ultrasound-photoacoustic dual-modal imaging system combines molecular imaging contrast with ultrasound imaging. It can display molecular and structural details inside the body in real time without... Read more

Nuclear Medicine

view channel
Image: PET/CT of a 60-year-old male patient with clinical suspicion of lung cancer (Photo courtesy of EJNMMI Physics)

Early 30-Minute Dynamic FDG-PET Acquisition Could Halve Lung Scan Times

F-18 FDG-PET scans are a way to look inside the body using a special dye, and these scans can be either static or dynamic. Static scans happen 60 minutes after the dye is administered into the body, showing... Read more

Imaging IT

view channel
Image: The new Medical Imaging Suite makes healthcare imaging data more accessible, interoperable and useful (Photo courtesy of Google Cloud)

New Google Cloud Medical Imaging Suite Makes Imaging Healthcare Data More Accessible

Medical imaging is a critical tool used to diagnose patients, and there are billions of medical images scanned globally each year. Imaging data accounts for about 90% of all healthcare data1 and, until... Read more

Industry News

view channel
Image: The acquisition will expand IBA’s medical imaging quality assurance offering (Photo courtesy of Radcal)

IBA Acquires Radcal to Expand Medical Imaging Quality Assurance Offering

Ion Beam Applications S.A. (IBA, Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium), the global leader in particle accelerator technology and a world-leading provider of dosimetry and quality assurance (QA) solutions, has entered... Read more
Copyright © 2000-2024 Globetech Media. All rights reserved.