Medical Imaging

1. Overview: The Department of Medical Imaging was founded in 2006; in 2013 it was recognized as a Suzhou municipal clinical key specialty and obtained the qualification of a national drug clinical trial institution; in 2019 it became a member of the Radiology Alliance of Zhongda Hospital affiliated to Southeast University; in 2020 it was designated a Jiangsu provincial clinical key specialty under construction. 2. Team: The department has a total of 75 medical, technical, and nursing staff, including 29 physicians, 32 technicians, 7 nurses, and 7 registration staff. Among them, 1 holds a doctoral degree, 2 are doctoral candidates, and 13 hold master's degrees. The team includes 3 chief physicians, 6 associate chief physicians, 9 attending physicians, 1 associate chief technician, and 1 associate chief nurse. It has subspecialties covering the chest, abdomen, neurology, musculoskeletal system, and imaging technology. 3. Equipment: The department owns multiple sets of nationally advanced imaging equipment, with hardware and software environments at the forefront of the country, including 3 MRI units, 8 CT units, 4 DR units, 1 digital gastrointestinal machine, and 2 mobile X-ray machines, all connected to a hospital-wide LANTEEN PACS system, suitable for various imaging examinations and functional imaging research and able to meet the needs of clinical work and scientific research. Among these: the Philips Elition 3.0T MRI is a 3.0T scanner serving both clinical care and research; examinations performed include whole-body PET-like imaging, high-definition vessel wall MRI plain plus contrast-enhanced scanning of the cerebral and carotid arteries, and coronary angiography. The Siemens Skyra 3.0T MRI supports MR spectroscopy, DTI, perfusion, cerebrospinal fluid flow measurement, cranial and peripheral nerve imaging, MRCP and spinal canal hydrography, as well as assessment of cardiac ventricular function and myocardium. The GE 7500 Spectral CT supports one-stop cardiac morphology and function examination, tophus detection, coronary CTA and other whole-body contrast-enhanced imaging, enabling early tumor detection, accurate staging, and efficacy evaluation. The Toshiba Aquilion ONE 640-slice CT supports head-and-neck CTA whole-brain perfusion imaging, CTA in acute coronary syndrome, whole-body vascular CTA, and the use of 640-volume CT in preoperative evaluation for TAVR. 4. Clinical features: Intelligent diagnosis: AI screening of pulmonary nodules; AI-assisted diagnosis of coronary CTA images; AI-assisted diagnosis of head-and-neck CTA images; quantitative analysis of abdominal fat and bone density monitoring. Cardiothoracic and breast group: cardiac functional MRI; dynamic contrast-enhanced breast MRI; one-stop CT cardiac function analysis; one-stop examination of the chest pain triple rule-out; pre-/postoperative evaluation of radiofrequency ablation in atrial fibrillation patients, etc. Abdominal imaging group: spectral CT stone composition analysis; accurate spectral CT imaging staging of digestive system tumors; MRI pancreaticobiliary imaging; MR urography, etc. Head and neck imaging group: one-stop CT imaging of head-and-neck vessels and cerebral perfusion; MRI brain function imaging; MRI arterial spin labeling perfusion imaging (ASL: contrast-free cerebral perfusion imaging); high-definition MRI vessel wall imaging of cerebral and carotid arteries; cranial and peripheral nerve MRI imaging, etc. Musculoskeletal imaging group: panoramic imaging of the spine and limbs; spectral CT metal artifact reduction; quantitative bone density measurement; dual-energy CT differentiation of gouty arthritis; high-definition MRI of articular cartilage, etc. 5. Research and teaching: The Department of Medical Imaging attaches great importance to the coordinated development of medical care, research, and education: it is an internship base of Jiangsu University, Soochow University, and Suzhou Vocational Health College. In recent years, the department has carried out more than 20 provincial- and municipal-level research projects, participated in 5 multicenter studies on prostate cancer, rectal cancer, liver cancer, and breast cancer, launched more than 10 new technology projects, and won more than 10 provincial and municipal new technology introduction awards; in the past 5 years the department has published more than 50 papers, including more than 20 SCI papers. In the course of specialty development, the young and middle-aged academic team is growing steadily and the academic innovation capability keeps improving.