Dear AuntMinnieEurope Member,
If you thought virtual congresses were always dull, safe, and predictable, then you may need to think again after ECR 2021.
The European Society of Radiology (ESR) put on a stylish and professionally choreographed opening ceremony for ECR 2021, the second year the congress is being held virtually.
The highlight was an impressive duet featuring ESR President Prof. Dr. Michael Fuchsjäger. Apparently, Fuchsjäger had singing lessons when he was younger. He stopped the classes but maintained a keen interest in opera, and just before the recording of the opening ceremony, he took a refresher course with an accomplished singer from Graz, Austria, to sharpen his performance. Judge for yourself in our report, which contains a one-minute video clip.
Beards also proved an unlikely topic of conversation at the ECR, when ESR Gold Medalist Prof. Paul Parizel was asked about the story behind his beard.
On a more serious note, a special session for trainees contained a practical and timely talk about how to handle on-call overnight shifts. Dr. Elizabeth Dick is a recognized expert in emergency radiology, so don't miss her words of wisdom.
Automated positioning measurement in mammography represents a promising means to continuously monitor image quality and radiographer performance in an objective manner, according to prize-winning research presented at the ECR. Find out more in our Women's Imaging Community.
Unsurprisingly, artificial intelligence (AI) has also been a central theme at this week's congress. An AI algorithm that screens head CT exams for intracranial hemorrhage -- and triages suspected cases for radiologist review -- can yield significant improvements in patient outcomes, a new Israeli study has found. Head over to the CT Community to learn more.
ECR 2021 continues until 7 March, so please do look out for new articles from our editorial team on the homepage over the next few days.
![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)
