By Jamila Ahdidan

Imagine a 70-year-old white male with an initial diagnosis of early-onset memory problems. Typical protocols would include neurological and psychological testing, along with a standard brain MRI. As expected, none of these tests revealed anything unusual. A radiologist involved with the case might have simply seen this patient as a 70-something with typical, mild-volume loss to the brain.

Fortunately, the radiologist attending to this case was Joseph M. Mettenburg, M.D., Ph.D., a neuroradiologist and assistant professor in the department of radiology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). Through implementation of the latest volumetric software, Dr. Mettenburg used Neuroreader™ data in conjunction with the MRI images to establish definitive proof of a profound loss in the hippocampal structure.



He alerted the rest of the patient’s medical care team to the finding, and as a result, they were given the opportunity to start the most appropriate treatment protocol significantly earlier than anticipated.

“Volumetric software fills in a technological gap in our practice, because it helps increase the radiologist’s confidence in his or her diagnosis,” explained Dr. Mettenburg. “With current magnetic resonance imaging technology, it comes down to what is essentially a subjective range of normal. Volumetric software fills in that gap as an objective component in the determination of what normal and abnormal brain volumes are.”

Dr. Mettenburg is one of a rapidly growing segment of radiologists who are regularly leveraging current and innovative technologies, including volumetric software, in new ways. As a result, these specialists are often able to increase the value of their assessments from both an economic and patient-care perspective, and increase their role – and their visibility – within the larger patient care team.

Begin closing the clinical-research technology gap
Dr. Mettenburg noted that there can sometimes appear to be a level of disconnect between clinical radiologists and the technology used in research studies. He pointed out that many of the latest advances in radiology and imaging technologies don’t appear to offer easily-commercialized applications. “No one is promoting these important, but relatively unknown products to the clinical radiologist community,” said Mettenburg. “Unfortunately, that can often mean that these products and the research that supports them, may go unnoticed, even when it’s useful.

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