Less Invasive Treatments

Medical imaging provides physicians with a remarkable vision of the body's structure and functioning-without surgery. Imaging technologies such as ultrasound, CT, MRI, PET, nuclear imaging, and X-ray enable physicians to perform a wide range of less-invasive medical tests and procedures. In many cases, these technologies foster earlier diagnosis, quicker recovery, shorter hospital stays, and reduced disability. While imaging was once thought of primarily as a diagnostic tool, today it is also used on the front line of treating, managing, and even predicting disease.

Medical imaging enables better, less-invasive care—which often means easier recoveries and greater patient comfort.

• Medical imaging permits use of thin, wire-mesh tubes to correct brain aneurysms, reducing the relative chances of death by 23 percent. In addition, patients avoid brain surgery that requires lengthy recovery and often causes permanent disability.
• Minimally invasive, image-guided therapy for prostate and liver cancer permits up-close and powerful treatment directly to cancerous tissue and with better outcomes for patients.
• Coronary angioplasty—a minimally invasive therapy guided by medical imaging-has become the "therapy of choice," according to the New England Journal of Medicine for re-opening clogged arteries.
• Sophisticated new radiation treatment systems provide targeted radiation therapy that matches the tumor shape, but protects surrounding tissue. The result: better success rates, quicker pain relief, and fewer complications.

For more information, go to www.medicalimaging.org.