From the November 2017 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine

Equally exciting, the dose of ionizing radiation in this test is drastically lower than other modalities. The amount of exposure from FFR CCTA is only 1/20 that of myocardial profusion imaging, making FFR CCTA an especially good option for pediatric heart patients.

• 3-D tumor tracking: Tumors are notoriously difficult to measure given their irregular shapes. Current protocols call for measuring tumors using length, width and height – or xyz – data. This method is problematic because the margin of error is as high as 200 percent, creating a significant challenge in determining appropriate therapies in patients with malignant tumors. At best, xyz provides a guesstimate of a tumor’s true volume.


At Phoenix Children’s, we are using 3-D volume measurements to determine a tumor’s size. The superior precision of 3-D allows oncologists to more precisely identify the most viable course of treatment and determine whether treatments are shrinking a patient’s tumor. Considering that cancer kills more children than any other disease, reliable data is critically important in identifying the best course of treatment, and may even mean the difference between life and death.

Moreover, because 3-D provides precise feedback to physicians about the effectiveness of treatment, the data also can serve as evidence to payors that treatments are working and must be continued, especially in cases where changes are difficult to measure.

New frontiers in radiology
I believe we have only scratched the surface in delivering medical care. Brilliant minds all around the world are racing to discover new cures for conditions that were once a death sentence. For kids with congenital diseases, the future is within our grasp.

• Spinraza therapy: When I was a pediatric resident in the 1970s, the prognosis for children with spinomuscular atrophy (then known as Werdnig Hoffman disease) was grim. Their brains were fully functional, but their bodies were not, and often they would die before their first birthday.

At that time, the medical community did not understand the genome. We were helpless in caring for children with congenital conditions. Today, breakthroughs in molecular therapy are a game-changer for children with SMA and other genetically based diseases. At Phoenix Children’s, we are engaged in new research and treatment using a molecular therapy called Spinraza, which is injected in the cerebrospinal fluid and absorbed in the spinal cord. At the simplest level, the drug gives a child the DNA coding his/her cells are missing. The cells then begin to produce the material that has been missing. It is nothing short of amazing.

November 2017 Magazine

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