• Changwoo Kang, Hoon Pyo Hong, Tae-Sin Kang, and Dae Seub Choi.
• Department of Emergency Medicine, Kyung Hee University Medical Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
• Am J Emerg Med. 2014 Sep 1;32(9):1051-4.

ObjectivesThe spiral computed tomography (CT) with the advantage of low radiation dose, shorter test time required, and its multidimensional reconstruction is accepted as an essential diagnostic method for evaluating the degree of injury in severe trauma patients and establishment of therapeutic plans. However, conventional sequential CT is preferred for the evaluation of traumatic brain injury (TBI) over spiral CT due to image noise and artifact. We aimed to compare the diagnostic power of spiral facial CT for TBI to that of conventional sequential brain CT.MethodsWe evaluated retrospectively the images of 315 traumatized patients who underwent both brain CT and facial CT simultaneously. The hemorrhagic traumatic brain injuries such as epidural hemorrhage, subdural hemorrhage, subarachnoid hemorrhage, and contusional hemorrhage were evaluated in both images. Statistics were performed using Cohen's κ to compare the agreement between 2 imaging modalities and sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of spiral facial CT to conventional sequential brain CT.ResultsAlmost perfect agreement was noted regarding hemorrhagic traumatic brain injuries between spiral facial CT and conventional sequential brain CT (Cohen's κ coefficient, 0.912). To conventional sequential brain CT, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of spiral facial CT were 92.2%, 98.1%, 95.9%, and 96.3%, respectively.ConclusionIn TBI, the diagnostic power of spiral facial CT was equal to that of conventional sequential brain CT. Therefore, expanded spiral facial CT covering whole frontal lobe can be applied to evaluate TBI in the future.Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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