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53 °F Forecast | Road Cams Sunday, May 1, 2005 Today's News | Shop Our Valley | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery | Contact Us SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Health Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley SHOP OUR VALLEY AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Classified Place an ad TOP JOBS EXTRA Ashland News NIE Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Moving here? eSouthernOregon CUSTOMER SERVICE FAQ's Advertise with us Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend December 31, 2002 Dr. Walter Emori, left, uses ultrasound technology to monitor his patients� rheumatoid arthritis. Nurse Jean Mackey gives patient Bob Lockwood of Montague, Calif., an ultrasound exam. Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli Sound treatment Medford doctor offers different technique for joint disorders, and gets clear picture By BILL KETTLER Mail Tribune Old docs like new tricks. Take Dr. Walter Emori, for example. At 62, the Medford rheumatologist recently started using sound waves to see inside joints ravaged by arthritis and rheumatism. Physicians have used the ultrasound in Europe for years, but it has been slow to catch on in the United States. Emori says that could change when American doctors realize the advantages of a technique that’s cheaper than MRIs and more versatile than X-rays. Besides, he said, it’s just plain fun to see beneath a patient’s skin. "It’s like an extension of our fingers and our eyes," he said. "We can see things we’ve never seen before." Emori said the procedure (known as musculoskeletal sonography) shows great potential for monitoring progressive diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. That’s because an ultrasound costs about one-third of an MRI (about $400 versus $1,200), which makes the exam affordable enough for doctors to do it frequently so they can watch the progress of a disease and any effect drugs might have on it. Sonography employs the same technology that anglers use to see fish in deep water. Sound waves reflect off bones and soft tissue at different rates. Computers collect the reflection patterns to build an image. Experienced doctors and nurses can see the irregular surfaces of joints damaged by arthritis. Ultrasound can also detect minute increases in blood flow that can cause inflammation in arthritic joints. Emori used to judge a patient’s circulation by feeling a joint with his fingers. Now he can see the extra blood on a computer screen as bright spots of color on a gray-and-white image of an arthritic joint. Tiny blips of orange and blue flashed on the screen Monday while nurse Jean Mackey rolled an ultrasound scanner across patient Bob Lockwood’s arthritic hand. Emori had felt Lockwood’s hands a few minutes earlier and judged that medicines were holding down his inflammation. "The pictures tell a different story," said Lockwood, who traveled from Montague, Calif., for an ultrasound. "He thought I was doing real good, but by looking at the pictures he can tell I’m not doing as good as he thought I was. So he can change my medicines." Emori said sonography has several advantages over MRI and X-ray, which take snapshots of the body at rest. Sonography can be used in "real time." A doctor can watch a patient move an afflicted joint and often locate the source of the pain. "You can scan them," Emori said, "and you can see exactly what’s wrong." Sonography can also detect foreign substances (such as wood or dirt) below the skin that an X-ray would never see. That makes it useful for treating gunshot survivors and accident victims who can develop serious infections from foreign material lodged beneath the skin. Emori turned to sonography after a heart attack last spring forced him to curtail the rheumatology practice he’d built during 25 years in Medford. He’d learned about the technique at a medical conference, and discovered many European rheumatologists used it frequently. "It looked interesting," he said, "and I decided I needed to learn it." He spent time observing some American physicians who use ultrasound, invested $45,000 in a used machine, hired Jean Mackey, a veteran nurse with ultrasound experience, and offered the service in an office in the Medical Arts Building on Murphy Road. Now he’s explaining the procedure to insurance companies so they will reimburse him for his treatments. "We’re not going to do this to make money," he said. "We’re in this because it’s a great new tool we can use. "If we can pay the rent, that’s fine, and I think we will." Outside the United States, musculoskeletal sonography is often the primary diagnostic tool for many complaints. Emori said it’s been underutilized here because doctors have so many other imaging tools, and they don’t have time to learn to use a new tool. He plans some research projects that can demonstrate ultrasound’s clear advantages over other diagnostic tools for joint disease. "My job," he said, "is to make it so exciting for (doctors) that they’ll say ‘I want to do this.’ " Reach reporter Bill Kettler at 776-4492, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. 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