Newsletter - April, 2013     Focus on New contribution focused on Anatomy Chest CT Anatomy J.F. Paul The accurate interpretation of chest CT — the first-line modality in the diagnosis of thoracic pathology — requires a deep knowledge of anatomy. This Focus On illustrates the main anatomical features of the thorax through a series of high-resolution CT images in 2D, with multiplanar reconstruction, and in 3D with volume and surface rendering. Use this presentation to review the position and CT appearance of bones, vessels and organs in both physiological and pathological conditions. more »     CT colonography Dr. Perry J. Pickhardt, writing on the pages of Abdominal Imaging, reviews common errors in reading CT colonograms and offers advice on how to avoid diagnostic mistakes. more »   Cardiovascular Since the availability of 320-detector-row CT scanners, several studies have investigated the diagnostic performance of 320-slice CT coronary angiography. A new study on 118 patients with suspected coronary artery disease confirmed the high sensitivity and specificity of this examination and found that it exposed patients to lower doses of both radiation and contrast medium than did invasive angiography. more »   Technical considerations/Cardiovascular A paper published in the February issue of the International Journal of Cardiovascular Imaging examined how modifications to the scanning protocols for coronary CT angiography affect image quality and diagnostic accuracy. Researchers in the Netherlands determined the impact of scanning at low tube current (low radiation dose). more »   Musculoskeletal Femoral bone mineral density is usually determined by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), but it can also be estimated from contrast-enhanced MDCT images of the abdomen when the proximal femur is included. In a retrospective study, researchers used archived radiographs from 40 patients who had undergone both exams to devise an equation to convert MDCT measures of bone mineral density into DXA-derived T-scores. They then showed how these calculated T-scores could be used to predict osteoporotic fractures in a larger group of patients who had only undergone MDCT. more »       Optimizing image quality of cerebrovascular CT angiography By V. Matarese Multidetector CT angiography has high sensitivity and specificity for cerebral aneurysms, but the small possibility of false negatives (missed aneurysms) means that further improvements in this diagnostic test are needed. A new study found that the quality of intracranial artery images obtained with 16-slice CT angiography  is better when higher iodine doses are combined with scanning at lower voltage. This essay summarizes the strengths and weaknesses of the new study and points out areas for further research. more »     Brain, head and neck First generalized seizure Man, 71 years old view »   Acute onset of right-sided hemiparesis  Woman, 84 years old view »   Abdomen and Pelvis Acute renal failure and hypertensive urgency Woman, 23 years old view »   Acute abdominal pain, leukocytosis and high CRP Man, 57 years old view »   CT staging of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma Woman, 42 years old view »   Restaging after chemotherapy for gastric cancer Woman, 49 years old view »   Sepsis in an intravenous drug user Man, 39 years old view »       If you wish to be removed from this email list, please click here If you would like to view our Privacy Policy, click here