• Radiology · Feb 2006

    Blunt abdominal trauma: utility of 5-minute delayed CT with a reduced radiation dose.

    • Joshua W Stuhlfaut, Brian C Lucey, Jose C Varghese, and Jorge A Soto.
    • Department of Radiology, Boston Medical Center, One Boston Medical Center Place, Boston, MA 02118, USA.
    • Radiology. 2006 Feb 1;238(2):473-9.

    PurposeTo retrospectively evaluate the utility of 5-minute delayed computed tomography (CT) of the abdomen and pelvis by using a reduced radiation dose in patients with blunt abdominal trauma.Materials And MethodsInstitutional review board consent was obtained, and written informed consent was waived. The study was HIPAA compliant. A total of 662 patients (497 men, 165 women; mean age, 40.5 years; range, 18-94 years) were identified who were evaluated with CT after blunt abdominal trauma during a 1-year period. Delayed CT scans were acquired 5 minutes after intravenous contrast material injection by using a decreased tube current of 100 mAs. Injury was identified in 106 patients. Two radiologists blinded to initial CT scan interpretation reviewed these cases to determine the quality and utility of delayed scans. Disagreement was settled by consensus. Delayed scans were considered useful when they aided in (a) characterizing initial CT findings, (b) identifying findings not present at initial CT, (c) excluding injury suggested at initial CT, and (d) increasing reader confidence with regard to initial CT findings.ResultsAll delayed scans were diagnostic. Delayed scans were useful in 27% (12 of 44) of patients with solid organ injury, 5.9% (one of 17) of patients with bowel or mesenteric injury, 4.5% (one of 22) of patients with pelvic fractures, and in none of the patients with free fluid only. Overall, delayed CT was useful in 2.1% (14 of 662) of all patients (95% confidence interval: 1.0, 3.2) referred for evaluation following blunt abdominal trauma. Utility increased to 13.2% (14 of 106) (95% confidence interval: 6.8, 19.7) in the group of patients with injury or suspected of having injury after initial CT.ConclusionIf delayed CT scans are acquired when patients with blunt abdominal trauma are evaluated, selective, rather than routine, acquisition is recommended and a reduced radiation dose seems adequate.(c) RSNA, 2005

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…