Ethical considerations

Imaging is increasingly used both in research and in clinical medicine, and hardware and sequences are continually being improved. These advances are likely to result in the detection of unexpected, asymptomatic abnormalities, such as brain tumors, aneurysms, or subclinical vascular pathologic changes. Consequently, a large amount of literature has been published on the prevalence of incidental findings, but also on the psychosocial consequences and impact of communicated incidental findings. Below, we present some further reading on this topic.

  • Incidental Findings
    • Meta-analysis on Incidental Findings on Brain MRI
    • The Rotterdam Study
    • SHIP-Study
      • Schmidt CO, Hegenscheid K et al. Psychosocial consequences and severity of disclosed incidental findings from whole-body MRI in a general population study. Eur Radiol. 2012. (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23239059)
      • Hegenscheid K, Seipel R et al. Potentially relevant incidental findings on research whole-body MRI in the general adult population: frequencies and management. Eur Radiol. 2013. (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22911290)
    • The NEO Study