John Memarian

Practice Management

The hidden link between image quality and diagnostic confidence

Image fidelity tracking should be embedded into daily radiology workflows, according to this columnist.

August 18, 2025

Memarian John Thumbnail

Page 1 of 1

Minnie Cast Thumbnail (26)

Women's Imaging MinnieCast, Episode 18: On the road with the LBCA

The Lobular Breast Cancer Alliance (LBCA) is embarking on a nationwide bus tour to raise disease awareness.

Representative longitudinal chest CT images and five-year parametric response mapping (PRM), pulmonary vascular CT reconstructions, and hyperpolarized xenon-129 (Xe-129) ventilation MRI scans from survivors of nonsevere and severe COVID-19 pneumonia. (A–F) Images in a 68-year-old male survivor of nonsevere COVID-19 pneumonia, (G–L) 62-year-old male survivor of severe COVID-19 pneumonia, and (M–R) 55-year-old male survivor of severe COVID-19 pneumonia. For each participant, the first three columns show coronal chest CT images from the acute phase (A, G, M), two-year follow-up (B, H, N), and five-year follow-up (C, I, O) (left to right). The fourth column (D, J, P) shows a coronal PRM image for each participant at five-year follow-up derived from paired inspiratory and expiratory CT scans, showing the spatial distribution of lung functional categories. Green indicates normal lung tissue, yellow indicates functional small airway disease, and red indicates emphysema. The second-to-last column shows volume-rendered small pulmonary vessel visualization (red) at five-year follow-up per participant (E, K, Q). The column on the far right (F, L, R) shows a hyperpolarized Xe-129 MRI ventilation defect percentage (VDP) map at five-year follow-up per participant. Dark blue represents high Xe-129 signal intensity, corresponding to well-ventilated lung regions, whereas red represents no Xe-129 signal intensity, corresponding to ventilation defects. At five-year follow-up, the 68-year-old survivor of nonsevere COVID-19 pneumonia (top row) showed near-complete radiologic resolution, no respiratory symptoms, and preserved pulmonary function. In contrast, the 62-year-old survivor of severe COVID-19 pneumonia (middle row) showed persistent fibrotic linear opacities without respiratory symptoms and mildly reduced pulmonary function. The 55-year-old survivor of severe COVID-19 pneumonia (bottom row) showed persistent scattered fibrotic linear opacities and focal emphysematous changes in both lungs, with dyspnea and impaired gas exchange function. The VDP values obtained from F, L, and R were 7.7%, 7.1%, and 6.3%, respectively.

What are the effects of COVID-19 pneumonia after 5 years?

Nuclear Medicine

USC researchers develop “plug-and-play" platform for PET tracers

Representative MRI scans for which the independently assigned imaging-derived extranodal extension (iENE) grades differed among the readers. (A) Axial and sagittal images in a 56-year-old male patient with nasopharyngeal carcinoma and cervical nodal metastases. Readers 1 and 3 interpreted the finding as a metastatic lymph node invading the left sternocleidomastoid muscle (arrow) and assessed an iENE grade of 3, whereas reader 2 assigned a grade of 2. After joint review, the radiologists reached a consensus on the absence of definite sternocleidomastoid muscle invasion, and the final iENE grade was 2. (B) Axial and sagittal images in a 52-year-old male patient with nasopharyngeal carcinoma and cervical nodal metastases. Reader 1 interpreted the findings as a single enlarged metastatic lymph node and assessed an iENE grade of 1, whereas readers 2 and 3 interpreted them as two coalescent metastatic lymph nodes (arrows) and assessed a grade of 2. After joint review, the radiologists reached a consensus on the coalescence of the two metastatic lymph nodes, and the final iENE grade was 2.

Image-based grading system estimates nasopharyngeal carcinoma severity

Free webinar for radiology leaders

Free webinar for radiology leaders

Joe Mason

August 21, 2026

Brandon Bush

August 21, 2026

Phil Rackliffe

June 17, 2026

Kristin Seitz

June 17, 2026

Kris Seitz 2026

Philips Healthcare Informatics

June 3, 2026

Rob Carfagno

March 23, 2026

Beatriz Dominguez Gonzalez

March 13, 2026

Beatriz Materialise

Matthew Dedman

March 12, 2026

Peter Enever

March 11, 2026

Native Elekta 2

Charles Morris

February 25, 2026

Aiyana Amess

January 27, 2026

Kelly Brock

December 16, 2025

Page 1 of 2