CT

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Author: Mikael Häggström [notes 1]

By location

With contrast

General planning

Upon receiving a referral for a CT, generally check:

  • Who is the ordering individual?
  • Where: From which unit or department?
  • Requested investigation
  • Targets: Suspected diseases or other questions or requests
  • Patient history
  • Possible earlier imaging that can already answer the questions?

Consider if another modality is better for the questions at hand.

Choose the proper CT settings

  • Contrast CT and/or non-contrast.
  • Include thin slices (0.5 to 1.5 mm)[1] if the skeleton needs to be evaluated.

General post-imaging approach

  • Check the order form
  • Who is the ordering individual?
  • Where: From which unit or department?
  • Patient history
  • Requested investigation
  • Targets:
  • Earlier investigations, and their findings
  • Examine the images at hand, including:
  • Requested targets from the referral, or suspected diseases or other questions
  • Basic screening, whose targets vary with mainly anatomic location (see locations above), but broadly include:
  • Complement with reconstructions where needed, such as volume renderings or thinner slices.
  • Write report
See also: General notes on reporting

Finally, check one extra time if the reply corresponds to the targets at hand.

Hounsfield scale

Location-unspecific diseases

Notes

  1. For a full list of contributors, see article history. Creators of images are attributed at the image description pages, seen by clicking on the images. See Radlines:Authorship for details.

References

  1. Maetani, Kazuhide; Namiki, Jun; Matsumoto, Shokei; Matsunami, Katsutoshi; Narumi, Atsushi; Tsuneyoshi, Toshimi; Kishikawa, Masanobu (2016). "Routine Head Computed Tomography for Patients in the Emergency Room with Trauma Requires Both Thick- and Thin-Slice Images ". Emergency Medicine International 2016: 1–4. doi:10.1155/2016/5781790. ISSN 2090-2840.