As technology changes, so does medical diagnosis
It’s here where modern imaging is coming into its own. For hard-to-find diseases like prostate cancer, MRI scans help ensure a correct diagnosis, explains Mercy Radiology’s Medical Director Dr Remy Lim, who specialises in interpreting prostate MRI scans. ‘‘It’s the only way you can have a really good look at the prostate itself and pick up lymph nodes and possible cancers.’’ Because of its hard-to-reach location, traditional prostate biopsies could miss certain areas and provide false reassurance. Previously, patients diagnosed with low grade cancer on biopsy who opted for ‘active surveillance’ had to rely on MRI to confirm no aggressive lesions had been missed. However, with the improvement of MRI, there’s a growing international trend to scan first. As Dr Lim notes, this gives the urologist a ‘‘roadmap’’ to find the cancer and can also potentially help patients avoid unneeded biopsies.
‘‘A landmark study in The Lancet (medical journal) last year estimates that 27 per cent of men could avoid having a biopsy altogether.’’ In more serious cases, it’s equally useful for getting a correct diagnosis. Dr Lim recalls one case where a patient was referred for an MRI and a potentially aggressive lesion was detected. A biopsy was performed with a normal result, but because of the worrying MRI result, they decided to perform a prostate cancer PET-CT scan.
For this patient, his PET-CT result confirmed the MRI. This meant a repeat biopsy was needed, from which the cancer was eventually confirmed. ‘‘If we had performed just a biopsy without the MRI, the cancer would have remained undiagnosed, would have grown and potentially killed the patient.’’ Because of its invaluable services, access to MRI is critical. To meet this need, Mercy Radiology recently installed a new MRI scanner in Silverdale, serving a growing community between Albany and Whangarei who would have previously had to travel far to get scanned. ‘‘Instead of getting people to come into the city, we wanted to have the technology come to them,’’ Dr Lim says. ‘‘It fits our ambition to ensure we’re focusing on what patients need.’’
See Mercy Radiology at Silverdale Medical Centre, 7 Polarity Rise.
Phone 0800 497297 or visit www.radiology.co.nz.
Poll: If we want to reduce speeding, what do you think actually changes driver behaviour? 🛻🚨🚓
In the Post's article on speeding penalties, the question is asked whether speeding fines are truly about road safety, or are they just a way to boost revenue for the Crown?
What do you think? Should speeding motorists receive speeding fines or demerit points?
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37.2% The sting of a fine (Money talks!)
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62.8% The threat of demerit points (Nobody wants to lose their license!)
Some Choice News!
DOC is rolling out a new tool to help figure out what to tackle first when it comes to protecting our threatened species and the things putting them at risk.
Why does this matter? As Nikki Macdonald from The Post points out, we’re a country with around 4,400 threatened species. With limited time and funding, conservation has always meant making tough calls about what gets attention first.
For the first time, DOC has put real numbers around what it would take to do everything needed to properly safeguard our unique natural environment. The new BioInvest tool shows the scale of the challenge: 310,177 actions across 28,007 sites.
Now that we can see the full picture, it brings the big question into focus: how much do we, as Kiwis, truly value protecting nature — and what are we prepared to invest to make it happen?
We hope this brings a smile!
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