Researchers studied neuroimaging of stroke patients in 10 states from 1999 to 2008. They found that MRI relative utilization increased 235 percent, while CT utilization increased minimally. Overall, diagnostic imaging was the fastest growing component of stroke hospitalization costs, increasing 213 percent from 1999 to 2007.
The authors concluded that MRI is not supplanting CT, but instead supplementing the modality as a diagnostic tool for stroke patients, driving costs upward.
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