January 2007 Blog Archive
Monday, January 22, 2007
New virtual colonoscopy screening likely to save lives
LONG ISLAND, N.Y. - Doctors across the U.S. are reaching the same conclusion when asked about new virtual colonoscopy technology. "It helps to save lives," says Kevin A. Kreeger, Ph.D. and director research and development for Viatronix, a, FDA-approved 3-D virtual colonoscopy system developer.
Dr. C. Michael Wright, a cardiologist at The LifeScore Clinic in San Diego agrees, "People are risking their lives just to avoid the traditional procedure. Viatronix virtual colonoscopy provides a proven, accurate and more palatable alternative to standard colon exams."
"A lot of time and effort has been poured into awareness and public service campaigns with the best of intentions, but you can't change the fact that the traditional procedure is unpleasant, uncomfortable and people can't immediately return to normal activities," Wright said.
Dr. James Ehrlich, medical director of Colorado Heart and Body Imaging, HeartCheck in Washington, DC and HeartScan of Indiana also sees virtual colonoscopy as a patient-friendly solution that should encourage more people to get the screening, without being concerned about sedation, lost work, and small, but possible risks including colon perforation. He points to other reasons why virtual colonoscopy comes much closer to an "ideal" screening test than its invasive traditional counterpart, conventional colonoscopy.
"Virtual colonoscopy can visualize 100% of the colon surface because of its ability to navigate in both directions. The patient undergoes a much milder bowel preparation, receives no sedation and can return to normal activities immediately. It gives patients another option and gets more people in for screening. We have also found a few life-threatening extracolonic lesions before they became significant, an added bonus for this exciting new test. Traditional colonoscopy is an important procedure - unfortunately it has been a failure of public acceptance. We think that the introduction of a safer and comparably accurate screening procedure will increase the numbers of those requesting a complete colon examination by at least 50%."
"Colon cancer is preventable in the vast majority of individuals by beginning total colon screening at age 50," says Dr. Mark Klein, a radiologist from Washington Radiology. "There is a very limited risk (small, but real) with traditional optical colonoscopy from the sedation and the procedure. A screening test should have no risk. With virtual colonoscopy, there is no sedation, no day off, no risk. A patient is in and out in 15 minutes."
The negative image of conventional colonoscopy has led to 70-75% of the population never getting screened. It also plays a large part in colorectal cancer being the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States, especially tragic, since colorectal cancer is 91% curable when detected early.
