Around 2,500 scientific and education exhibits were presented at RSNA. The judges gave no summa cum laude awards, but they selected 20 recipients of the magna cum laude on 30 November.

The prize-winning French exhibit covered the basic theory, potential pitfalls, and clinical applications of amide proton transfer-weighted imaging (APTWI) in neuro-oncology. The first author was Guillaume Hamon, an application specialist and engineer at Centre Hospitalier Universitaire (CHU) de Nantes.

CHU Nantes has around 3000 beds and employs more than 13,000 people. It has services for transplantation, oncology, neurosurgery, and the treatment of severe burns.

The authors explained that APTWI is a novel contrast-free molecular MRI technique used to identify benign and malignant tumors, and it has shown promise in characterizing and differentiating brain neoplasms as well as malignancies in other body regions.

The APTWI signal originates from amide protons in endogenous proteins and peptides in the parenchyma. The content of mobile proteins and peptides in tumor tissue increases, resulting in higher APTWI signal intensity values.

Hamon's exhibit aims to provide an introduction to chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST). In addition to the technical considerations and limitations, it focuses on image analysis and tumor mimics, as well as the team's ongoing research.

Breast care for underserved patients

Researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas received a magna cum laude for their digital poster, "Serving the underserved: A safety net framework to provide high quality, comprehensive and culturally competent breast imaging care."

Dr. Berat Bersu Ozcan.

"I am overjoyed with the recognition," first author Dr. Berat Bersu Ozcan, a research fellow in the breast imaging division, told AuntMinnieEurope.com. "It is my first RSNA. I also received the 2022 American Association for Women in Radiology Member-In-Training Award for outstanding RSNA Presentation."

The team's goal is to improve the quality of life of patients through more widely employed breast health initiatives.

"Social determinants of health account for 80% of health outcomes, length, and quality of life," noted Ozcan, who received her medical degree from Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine, Turkey, in June 2021 and moved to the U.S. in December 2021 to work in radiology. "In our safety-net hospital, Parkland Health, our faculties and staff provide a significant level of care to the underserved, vulnerable patient population every day."

Helped by her mentors, particularly Dr. Jessica Porembka, Parkland Health's medical director of breast imaging and quality assurance, she collected and analyzed nearly 100 representative cases.

"We will continue to pursue our breast health initiative," she said. "Hopefully, we will be able to report better outcomes in the way of mitigating healthcare disparities."

Other top prize-winning posters at RSNA 2022 looked at how to distinguish fraternal twins on a chest x-ray, imaging the male breast, confronting and overcoming emergency radiology biases, mimickers of pancreatic cancer, clinical applications of MR spectroscopy, natural language processing in radiology, MRI of postoperative endometriosis, intra-articular osteoid osteomas, liver MR elastography, and simplifying MR defecography.

You can download a full list of the poster award winners from the RSNA website.