Dear AuntMinnieEurope Member,
Much has been said and written about CT COVID-19 infection control over recent months, but relatively little advice has been issued about MRI -- even though some of the key issues involved in the two modalities are quite different.
To correct the imbalance and promote discussion in this area, we've posted a new article about how to keep MRI suites clean and safe. Three MRI specialists have shared their experiences and given us their opinions. Learn more in our MRI Community.
An important study was published this week about the neurological manifestations of severe SARS-CoV-2 infection. Researchers from University College London have evaluated the clinical, radiological, laboratory, and neuropathological findings from COVID-19 patients referred to them between 9 April and 15 May. Don't miss our news report.
Radiologists need to remain mindful of gadolinium's footprint and keep aware of the guidelines and evidence on gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs), according to French investigators. Their analysis of the main trends in GBCA usage deserves a close look.
A movie about the life and work of Marie Curie was launched last month. Called "Radioactive," it was directed by Marjane Satrapi, the Iranian-born French author and illustrator, and Dr. Adrian Thomas has reviewed it for you.
ECR Online begins on 15 July, and in a new column, the Maverink has expressed a personal view about the event, its prospects of success, and the future of large conferences. Our editorial team will be posting news stories throughout the congress.
Also, this week we've added some new abdominal questions to AuntMinnieEurope.com's Board Review. They were written by Prof. Dr. Mustafa Secil from Izmir, Turkey. Please do check them out on our free study tool supported by the European Board of Radiology (EBR). On Tuesday, we'll post a video interview with Prof. Laura Oleaga, EBR's scientific director.
![Overview of the study design. (A) The fully automated deep learning framework was developed to estimate body composition (BC) (defined as subcutaneous adipose tissue [SAT] in liters; visceral adipose tissue [VAT] in liters; skeletal muscle [SM] in liters; SM fat fraction [SMFF] as a percentage; and intramuscular adipose tissue [IMAT] in deciliters) from MRI. The fully automated framework comprised one model (model 1) to quantify different BC measures (SAT, VAT, SM, SMFF, and IMAT) as three-dimensional (3D) measures from whole-body MRI scans. The second model (model 2) was trained to identify standardized anatomic landmarks along the craniocaudal body axis (z coordinate field), which allowed for subdividing the whole-body measures into different subregions typically examined on clinical routine MRI scans (chest, abdomen, and pelvis). (B) BC was quantified from whole-body MRI in over 66,000 individuals from two large population-based cohort studies, the UK Biobank (UKB) (36,317 individuals) and the German National Cohort (NAKO) (30,291 individuals). Bar graphs show age distribution by sex and cohort. BMI = body mass index. (C) After the performance assessment of the fully automated framework, the change in BC measures, distributions, and profiles across age decades were investigated. Age-, sex-, and height-adjusted body composition reference curves were calculated and made publicly available in a web-based z-score calculator (https://circ-ml.github.io).](https://img.auntminnieeurope.com/mindful/smg/workspaces/default/uploads/2026/05/body-comp.XgAjTfPj1W.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&dpr=2&fit=crop&h=167&q=70&w=250)
