OBJECTIVE Few studies have assessed the impact of trauma volume on the operational efficiency of emergency departments. Herein, we evaluate the association between trauma volume with the positive rate of head computed tomography scans in head trauma patients in a tertiary care hospital. METHODS This is a retrospective cohort review involving all head trauma patients presenting to a tertiary c...

There are no clear guidelines when an additional CT scan should be obtained for the treatment of displaced intra-articular distal radius fractures (DRF). This study aimed to investigate whether surgeons can predict the usefulness of CT scans to facilitate choice of treatment plan and/or pre-operative planning for DRF. Four surgeons evaluated 51 patients with displaced DRF. The choice of treatme...

BACKGROUND The evaluation of a breast after breast reconstruction depends on a surgeon's subjective criteria. We used computed tomography (CT) scans to obtain an objective evaluation of the postoperative results by measuring the breast volume of patients who had undergone breast reconstruction using pedicled transverse rectus abdominis myocutaneous (TRAM) flaps. This research will help in the o...

In external beam radiotherapy treatment planning for patients with thoracic malignancies, respiratory-correlated CT (4D CT) is used to obtain high quality studies in the presence of respiratory motion. When helical 4D CT scans are acquired with a Brilliance CT Big Bore, the pitch must meet two conditions. It must be low enough to avoid motion artifacts, and high enough to cover the entire scan ...

BACKGROUND Respiration-correlated CT (4D CT) is the basis of radiotherapy treatment planning of thoracic and abdominal tumors. Current clinical 4D CT images suffer, however, from artifacts due to unfulfilled assumptions concerning breathing pattern regularity. We propose and evaluate modifications to existing low-pitch spiral 4D CT reconstruction protocols to counteract respective artifacts. ...

We hypothesized that head computed tomography (CT) is an accurate screening tool for detecting nonnasal midfacial fractures in trauma patients. We retrospectively reviewed charts and official readings for all patients who underwent both head and facial CT scans for trauma at our trauma center between August 2002 and April 2003. The ability of head CT to diagnose nonnasal bone midfacial fracture...

UNLABELLED The purpose of this study was to evaluate the added value of a fourth and subsequent follow-up PET/CT scans to clinical assessment and impact on patient management in patients with colorectal cancer. METHODS This was an institutional review board-approved, retrospective study. Eight hundred twenty-two patients with biopsy-proven colorectal cancer, who underwent (18)F-FDG PET/CT, we...

BACKGROUND The association between pleural plaques and pleural mesothelioma remains controversial. The present study was designed to examine the association between pleural plaques on computed tomography (CT) scan and the risk of pleural mesothelioma in a follow-up study of asbestos-exposed workers. METHODS Retired or unemployed workers previously occupationally exposed to asbestos were invit...

BACKGROUND Appendectomies are the most common operations performed on an emergency basis. The accepted rate of "white" appendectomies is around 20%. In recent years, computed tomography (CT) scanning has been recognized as a valuable tool with high sensitivity and specificity in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis. The use of CT scans in the management of patients with suspected acute appendici...

BACKGROUND Socio-economic status is known to influence health throughout life. In childhood, studies have shown increased injury rates in more deprived settings. Socio-economic status may therefore be related to rates of certain medical procedures, such as computed tomography (CT) scans. This study aimed to assess socio-economic variation among young people having CT scans in Northern England b...