Live from the operating theatre - via Google Glass: First ever live stream of surgery while U.S. doctor uses wearable computer

This is the first ever U.S. live stream of an operation via Google Glass

It showed doctor's vantage point via the internet to audiences miles away

It also allowed the doctor to consult in real-time with a distant colleague

The surgeon used Google Glass to consult with a distant colleague using live, point-of-view video from the operating room.

The live stream was part of the exclusive Google Glass Explorer Program, which invited only 1,000 people in the U.S to test the device. 

A surgeon at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center is the first in the United States to consult with a distant colleague using live, point-of-view video from the operating room via Google Glass

GE recalls gamma cameras after fatal accident - Patient at Bronx VA Hospital Killed After Equipment Collapses

A patient at a veteran's hospital in the Bronx was killed Wednesday when a large piece of diagnostic equipment fell on him in what experts called a rare accident.

The 66-year-old victim was undergoing a procedure using a gamma camera at the James J. Peters VA Medical Center when the apparatus apparently collapsed and crushed him, officials said.

In a statement, a spokesman for the medical center said the camera was installed in 2006 and was maintained by its manufacturer. "This is a very tragic and unusual event and the details are still unfolding," said Jim Connell, a hospital spokesman.

He declined to identify the patient, citing privacy laws.

According to the New York Fire Department, a 911 call for an ambulance came from the hospital on West Kingsbridge Road at about 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, but was quickly called off. A spokeswoman for the New York City Medical Examiner said an autopsy hadn't yet been completed and that the victim hasn't been formally identified by next of kin.

An official with knowledge of the matter said the camera was a Infinia Hawkeye 4 model, manufactured by General Electric Co. The Hawkeye line is one of the largest on the market and can weigh more than 5,000 pounds.

Mr. Connell said the camera had been used in diagnostic procedures "without incident."

fMRI of brain at rest reveals early signs of Alzheimer's

Functional MRI (fMRI) scans of the brain at rest show disruptions in neural networks in patients with early Alzheimer's disease at about the same time as chemical markers of the disease begin to appear in cerebrospinal fluid, according to a study published online August 19 in JAMA Neurology.

The researchers from Washington University in St. Louis assessed resting-state brain fMRI along with the presence of beta-amyloid plaque and tau protein in the cerebrospinal fluid to detect the early onset of Alzheimer's disease.

The findings are among the first to show how resting-state fMRI may be an equally effective and less invasive way to detect early development of the disease, according to Dr. Liang Wang, from the department of neurology, and colleagues.

A set of brain areas that are active at rest and share a similar timecourse of activity is shown. The top row represents the average “resting state network” from a group of 15 healthy controls, the middle row 14 schizophrenia patients, and the bottom row 17 bipolar disorder patients. It is clear that there are broad similarities in the brain areas in this network across conditions, but there are also subtle differences, which we are currently investigating.

PET/MRI helps with pulmonary nodule detection -- to a point

Simultaneous PET/MRI performs better than PET and MRI performed separately for the detection of FDG-avid pulmonary nodules and lesions at least 0.5 cm in size. However, it has problems with non-FDG-avid nodules and smaller lesions, researchers report in the September issue of Radiology.

Simultaneous PET/MRI identified 86 (96%) of 90 FDG-avid pulmonary nodules and 78 (89%) of 88 nodules with a diameter of 0.5 cm or larger, in the study from NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City.

PET/MRI was less proficient in finding lesions smaller than 0.5 cm, achieving a sensitivity of only 38% (19 of 50 nodules), and it had a sensitivity of only 23% (11 of 48) for nodules that were not FDG-avid (Radiology, Vol. 268:3, pp. 874-881).

PET/MRI of a 63-year-old man with a history of lung cancer who underwent diagnostic PET/CT to assess tumor burden. Image shows a left upper lobe lesion (large arrow). A right upper lobe lesion was also found due to FDG avidity. Image courtesy of Radiology.