Lung Cancer Imaging: Comparing between CT and MRI - Coursework Example

The following are some premises that support the establishment of the above hypothesis:
1. The primary reason for this could be that CT tends to be more universally used because it is less expensive than MRI, and also more readily available.
2. Although CT is more accessible, we will also examine the question of how MRI can identify sulcus tumors because it has multiplanar imaging facilities, which CT does not have.
3. Although normal-sized nodes cannot be identified as metastatic in either CT or MRI, we will examine evidence from emerging studies that CT may be able to provide some assistance in this area.
4. Since approximately 5% of patients with lung cancer have silent metastasis, we will also identify how CT is a valuable diagnostic tool to examine the liver and adrenal glands, which helps rule out that there is metastasis at these locations in the patient’s body.
5. The efficacy of CT will also be examined vis-à-vis other emerging imaging techniques such as Positron emission tomography (PET). It will be established how CT scores above such techniques since many of them are at experimental stages and are also not easily available, or very expensive even if available for implementation.
Three broad criteria have determined the methodology used to gather information for this research project. They are outlined as follows, and the rationale behind the selection (or exclusion) criteria is also briefly outlined:
1) Inclusion/exclusion criteria have been determined essentially via date and region since firstly, rapid developments in healthcare technology indicate that information rapidly becomes obsolete, and therefore the sources used do not date back to more than six years previously. Secondly, the study also focuses primarily on UK-based sources of reference, except in cases where findings are universal or more generally applicable than in most cases. Thirdly, the inclusion/exclusion criteria have also not been based on any specific age/gender/ethnic groups, meaning that no such focus group has been targeted for research. Instead, the study focuses on a cross-section of the demographic statistics that have been determined based on the methods of data collection.
2) Methods of data collection: data has been collected primarily through books and print journals published in the K. within the last six years (i.e., in the year 2000 or later). Web-based articles that are from authenticated websites (such as university websites, seminar-related findings, websites managed by hospitals or doctors, etc) have been utilized. Also, electronic forms of articles from print journals accessed through such databases as PubMed and Questia have been made use of for the collection of data, information, statistics, and theoretical findings.
3) Ethical approval is a pertinent issue while gathering data for such research since the study deals with a disease that often carries connotations of personal blame because of the prevalence of lung cancer among smokers. Therefore, the researcher has been careful to change (or to not include) the names of patients who have been cited as case studies or as examples of particular findings.