Radiology news from around the world for Dec. 13, 2010.

MRI captures baby's first moments

For the first time, an MRI scan captured a baby's live birth.

Doctors at the Berlin's Charité University Hospital in Germany recorded a baby entering the world using an open high-field MRI scanner developed by Philips Healthcare.

The opened-up scanner doesn't have a typical tube shape, so doctors could have access to mother and child during the birth, Philips said.

The researchers said they spent more than two years trying to perfect the device, and had to also create a special fetal surveillance monitor that wouldn't be compromised by the intense magnetic fields generated by the magnet.

And Philips said the scan isn't just a novelty: the research team, made of radiologists, obstetricians and equipment specialists, wants to use live birth imaging to learn why in about 15 percent of all births there is stalled labor requiring a Cesarean section.

Czech rads investigate 400-year-old mystery

Czech radiologists think CT scans of a famous astronomer could help solve a nearly 400-year-old mystery.

Radiologists from the Na Homolce in Prague are helping Danish researchers uncover how 16th century astronomer and astrologist Tycho Brahe died, Prague Daily Monitor reports.

The radiologists said they have scanned about 25,000 narrow profiles of the exhumed remains, and are creating 3-D models which they will send to Denmark for further analysis. The Danish researchers hope to use the findings to get clues about Brahe's height and health at the time he died.

Most schoolchildren know the official story: at a banquet, Brahe (1546-1601) drank copious amounts of alcohol, but thought it impolite to leave the table to urinate. Eleven days later, he died, possibly of a bladder or kidney problem (though scientists have long since squashed the idea he died from a burst bladder).

However, hairs from Brahe tested in the 1990s revealed the great scientist likely had been exposed to high levels of mercury, leading some to speculate that he had been poisoned. Numerous suspects have been named, including his assistant Johannes Kepler, the astronomer who helped birth the Scientific Revolution. Supposedly, Kepler wanted to prove his model of the universe, but needed to lay his hands on some of Brahe's observations of Mars, which Brahe refused to share with him. Other potential plotters include Brahe's cousin and even the king of Denmark, angered over gossip Brahe was having an affair with his mother.

But historians cited by the New York Times said a more convincing, if humdrum, explanation is the Danish astronomer was exposed to mercury through alchemical experiments or from medicine used to treat his kidney or bladder ailments.

Radiographer loses registration in raunchy photo scandal

An Australian radiographer had his registration suspended and was given two years' probation after he tricked a nurse into sending him nude photos, the AAP reports.

According to a court hearing described by the AAP, Jordan Hennig, a 27-year-old radiologic technologist from the city of Gold Coast, convinced a nurse to send him nude and explicit photographs after he forged a bogus identity and offered her work as a model.

Recently, the medical radiologic technologists board for the state of Queensland revoked Hennig's registration, and told him he couldn't re-apply until his probation order expires next November, AAP said.

Hennig pleaded guilty to unlawful stalking in a Southport Magistrates Court in November 2009, and received two years' probation and was ordered to receive counseling, AAP said.

Portable ultrasounds fan India's abortion worries

Indian authorities worry that relatively cheap portable ultrasounds could make it easier for unscrupulous doctors to perform sex-selective abortions, the Times of India reports.

The paper cites health authorities from the northern state of Haryana who fear that the cell phone-sized ultrasound devices, which retail for between $12,100 - $13,300, could be used illegally to find out the sex of a fetus, leading to abortions of girls.

India has a lopsided sex ratio, which many activists blame on sex-selective abortions. The 2001 census revealed there were only 946 females for every 1,000 males, with 35 million fewer women and girls than boys and men, according to reports. And the Times says it's even more lopsided for "boy-crazy" Haryana: the sex ratio there is 850 women for every 1,000 men.

Sex determination tests have been illegal countrywide since 1994, and Haryana officials say there's no evidence portable ultrasounds have been improperly used. Nonetheless, there's widespread concern that underground sex determination tests still go on. The state's health ministry said it's preparing a report on the matter.

"Such portable ultrasound equipment are being widely used ostensibly to determine the gender of the fetus," Dr. Arvind Sharma, a member of parliament from the center-left Indian National Congress, said, according to the Times. "If no steps are taken against the misuse, all efforts to stop female feticide would go waste."