IC102: Integrating Breast Ultrasound into Clinical Practice: "How-To" Approach; Correlation with Mammography and Clinical Examination (Dianne Georgian-Smith, MD); Integrating Breast MRI into Clinical Practice: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Luz Venta, MD)

The 2008 ARRS Annual Meeting in Washington, DC, on April 13-18, will feature an instructional course on integrating both breast ultrasound and breast MRI into clinical practice (IC102). The first part of the course focuses on breast ultrasound and is entitled, “Integrating Breast Ultrasound into Clinical Practice: ‘How-To’ Approach; Correlation with Mammography and Clinical Examination.” This presentation will be delivered by Dianne Georgian-Smith, MD, who is an associate professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School and a member of the WomensImagingOnline.org advisory panel.

According to Dr. Georgian-Smith, the part of the instructional course that focuses on ultrasound is designed to offer a practical approach to performing breast ultrasound.

“Breast ultrasound is an important diagnostic tool, yet it can still be daunting since it is so operator dependent. We hope that this course will help the radiologist in performing and applying breast ultrasound to their clinical practice,” said Dr. Georgian-Smith.

Unlike other courses that may discuss or show interesting cases, this course will provide some guidelines and suggestions in performing this procedure, as well as discussing the clinical practice of breast ultrasound in conjunction with mammography and MRI.

“Those who practice breast imaging, as well as the technologists who perform breast ultrasound, will find the course practical and useful, being given by two dedicated breast imagers with many years of experience. We hope that our colleagues will find these tips of the trade useful in their own practice,” said Dr. Georgian-Smith.

The second dedicated breast imager mentioned above is Luz Venta, MD, Medical Director at The Methodist Hospital Breast Center in Houston, TX. Dr. Venta will be presented the second part of the instructional course on breast MRI and how it correlates with breast ultrasound, entitled “Integrating Breast MRI into Clinical Practice: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.”

According to Dr. Venta, physicians specializing in health care for women face a daily dilemma: How to determine the right test to order for breast health care in different patients. Breast MRI is powerful technology, but it is not a magic bullet. It will not solve all diagnostic dilemmas, and in fact it will create some new ones. Integrating new technology effectively is of utmost importance.

“The course is designed to guide physicians into the brave new world of breast MRI by using several cases as examples physicians can ask and by answering very practical management questions. The course is meant to be of clinical and practical value to others whose patients often request or ask about breast MRI,” said Dr. Venta.

IC102, with lectures on breast ultrasound and breast MRI, takes place on Monday, April 15, at 8:00 am. For more information about the 2008 ARRS Annual Meeting, visit www.arrs.org/meetings/ano8/.

For more information on the women's imaging instructional courses, visit WIO's ARRS 2008 Annual Meeting Instructional Course Section.