Abdominal/Body Imaging in the Medical College of Wisconsin Department of Radiology

The Abdominal/Body Imaging section of the Department of Radiology at the Medical College of Wisconsin encompasses 22 ABR certified radiologists who specialize in body computed tomography, sonography and magnetic resonance imaging.

Meet Our Team

Make an appointment at (414) 777-1900.

Parag P. Tolat, MD

Chief, Professor

Section Chief of Abdominal/Body Imaging

Jeffrey D. Anderson, MD

Adjunct Assistant Professor

Hillary S. Bauer-Cohen, MD

Assistant Professor

Robert A. Beres, MD

Associate Professor

Agrahara G. Bharatkumar, MD

Associate Professor

Kathleen Bhatt, MD

Assistant Professor

Daniel Bucklan, MD, MPH

Assistant Professor of Radiology

Joseph J. Budovec, MD

Professor

Leela Chaudhary, MD

Assistant Professor

Brian J. Di Giacinto, DO

Instructor

Scott J. Erickson, MD

Professor

Associate Program Director, Abdominal Imaging

Abdominal Imaging Fellowship

Eric Fair, MD

Assistant Professor

Sujan Fernando, MD

Adjunct Assistant Professor

Michael O. Griffin, MD, PhD

Associate Professor

Program Director, Abdominal Imaging

Glen T. Hansen, MD

Assistant Professor

John S. Heighway, MD

Assistant Professor

Mark D. Hohenwalter, MD

Associate Dean, Executive Director, Professor

Michael R. Holt, MD

Chief, Assistant Professor

Section Chief of Nuclear Medicine; Associate Program Director - Recruitment

Michael A. Kim, MD

Assistant Professor

Naveen Kulkarni, MD

Associate Professor

Mario A. Laguna, MD

Assistant Professor

Thomas Lindsay, MD

Assistant Professor

Ryan Lo, MD

Assistant Professor

Martin M. McKinney, MD

Assistant Professor

Charles Messerly, DO

Assistant Professor

Danielle Nagel, MD

Assistant Professor

Rahul Nath, MD

Assistant Professor

Pritesh Patel, MD

Vice Chair, Associate Professor

Douglas C. Pierce, MD, MS

Assistant Professor

Nolan A. Reed, MD

Assistant Professor

Eric P. Segal, MD

Assistant Professor

Katherine M. Troy, MD

Assistant Professor

Stephanie A. Vincent-Sheldon, MD, MBA

Assistant Professor

Christopher T. Wickman, MD

Vice Chair, Assistant Professor

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Body CT

Body computed tomography is a widely diversified field. Five CT scanners are utilized within Froedtert Hospital for high resolution targeted and more extensive volumetric high resolution studies on patients suffering from cancer, cardiovascular disease, focal and diffuse inflammatory disorders, diseases of the gastrointestinal and genitourinary tract, and blunt and penetrating trauma. The section has three 64-channel high resolution CT scanners and two 16-channel CT scanners, one with a relatively wide bore suitable for imaging of larger patients and in guiding interventional procedures. All scanners are operated by highly skilled technologists utilizing imaging protocols which are continuously refined to be at the cutting edge of imaging technology.

Both ultrasound and CT imaging are used for guided interventional procedures including tissue biopsy and percutaneous catheter drainage of fluid collections in the body. These highly specialized invasive procedures require cutting edge technology and experienced operators working in conjunction with referring surgical and medical services. Both sonography and CT are important imaging modalities for sick patients in intensive care units, with sonography having the additional advantage of being a portable procedure allowing the study to be performed at the patient's bedside.

Ultrasound

Sonography includes imaging of the upper abdomen and female pelvis, vascular imaging of the carotid and vertebral systems, abdominal visceral vasculature and the extremities, and "small pod" imaging of the superficial body structures including the thyroid and parathyroid glands, superficial musculoskeletal structures, and the external male genitalia. Seven ultrasound systems are employed with sufficient probe availability to allow high resolution targeted imaging of any specific body part.

Both ultrasound and CT imaging are used for guided interventional procedures including tissue biopsy and percutaneous catheter drainage of fluid collections in the body. These highly specialized invasive procedures require cutting edge technology and experienced operators working in conjunction with referring surgical and medical services. Both sonography and CT are important imaging modalities for sick patients in intensive care units, with sonography having the additional advantage of being a portable procedure allowing the study to be performed at the patient's bedside.

Body MRI

Magnetic resonance imaging utilizes state-of-the-art 1.5 and 3 tesla units to provide a full range of magnetic resonance body imaging including imaging of the solid abdominal organs and intestine, female pelvis, cardiovascular system and musculoskeletal imaging of the joints of the upper and lower extremities as well as soft tissue tumors of both the body and the extremities. Magnetic resonance imaging and CT can be utilized for similar imaging tasks and selection of the appropriate modality for each individual patient is an important aspect of the practice.

Magnetic resonance imaging employs new contrast agents in hepatobiliary imaging, optimizes 3 tesla imaging, and applies diffusion weighted imaging, more specifically for localization of difficult-to-image peritoneal tumor deposits as well as providing more accurate delineation of abdominal visceral tumors suitable for treatment with 3-dimensional conformal radiation therapy.

Imaging Volume

The imaging volume of each modality has been increasing over the past several years, reflecting the increased patient volume introduced by referral to the tertiary level medical center.

Education

While maintaining high level clinical imaging and patient care, the Abdominal/Body Imaging section is responsible for teaching the next generation of radiologists the fundamentals of system design and operation and appropriate clinical application. In addition to the residency training program, four fellows are selected for each academic year for the Abdominal/Body Imaging Fellowship Program to pursue specialized training in body imaging. These highly trained individuals then graduate to either other academic institutions or to community practice.

Research

The section's research activities have focused on CT and utilizing dual energy acquisition for tissue discrimination and further employing dose reduction techniques, more specifically advanced model based interactive reconstruction in providing high resolution, relatively low dose CT imaging. In ultrasound, fusion imaging employing real time ultrasound in any imaging plane to co-register with previously acquired CT or MRI data has been employed to both improve diagnostic yield as well as enable guided interventional procedure