Summer 2011 | Issue home
The New MRI?
UPMC is one of only a handful of centers in the country using cone beam computed tomography (CBCT), a dedicated CT scan made specifically for the breast. The Pitt team believes this experimental technology might eventually replace the MRI. Currently, UPMC is enrolling patients in several research protocols to study this hypothesis. CBCT reveals the anatomy as well as the functional activity of the organ, but at what will likely be a much smaller price tag than an MRI and a much lower radiation dose than a traditional CT. (A single CBCT test amounts to about the same, low radiation dose as a coast-to-coast, round-trip flight in a commercial airplane. A traditional CT is more than 17 times that dose.) Here, a sagittal view of a contrast-enhanced CBCT (left) shows a patient’s cancer equally as well as the same view of a contrast-enhanced MRI (right).
A New Twist on Origami: The da Vinci Fold
Pitt surgeons praise the da Vinci robotic operating system for bringing
greater dexterity and range of motion to minimally invasive surgery. In 2006, a surgeon in Japan, using an earlier model of the da Vinci, had a bit of fun showing just how far the da Vinci surpasses traditional laparoscopic techniques.
da Vinci Robot demonstration - Origami pterodacty
And see a Seattle doc pay tribute to his town's Boeing Company.
Video: "Duvvuri on da Vinci: A Pitt Medcast"
An interview with Pitt's Uma Duvvuri about a throat tumorectomy performed as a robotic-assisted laser-surgical procedure rather than a conventional procedure.
