Emergency radiology
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Emergency radiology · Aug 2017
Pediatric chest CT at chest radiograph doses: when is the ultralow-dose chest CT clinically appropriate?
Computed tomography (CT) use in emergency departments represents a significant contribution to pediatric patients' exposure to ionizing radiation. Here, we evaluate whether ultralow-dose chest CT can be diagnostically adequate for other diagnoses and whether model-based iterative reconstruction (MBIR) can improve diagnostic adequacy compared to adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction (ASIR) at ultralow doses. ⋯ Ultralow-dose chest CT may be adequate for airway assessment, but suboptimal for the evaluation parenchymal lung disease. Although MBIR improves objective and subjective image quality, it does not completely restore the diagnostic adequacy of ultralow-dose CT when compared to standard-dose CT.
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Emergency radiology · Aug 2017
Clinical and imaging features indicative of clinically worrisome pneumatosis: key components to identifying proper medical intervention.
The purpose of this retrospective study was to determine clinical and imaging factors on computed tomography (CT) associated with clinically worrisome pneumatosis intestinalis (PI) that may aid in the decision to provide conservative management or urgent surgical intervention. ⋯ CT imaging characteristics and clinical features can help predict clinically worrisome PI and guide crucial management decisions.
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Emergency radiology · Aug 2017
Incidental findings in blunt trauma patients: prevalence, follow-up documentation, and risk factors.
The frequency of computed tomography (CT) imaging of trauma patients has given rise to an increase in the discovery of incidental findings. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the frequency and documentation of follow-up recommendations of incidental findings during the initial trauma evaluation. Secondarily, trauma patients with and without incidental findings were compared. We hypothesized that there would be a high rate of incidental findings in trauma patients and that these findings would be poorly documented. ⋯ A large percentage of trauma patients have incidental findings. Therefore, better documentation and follow-up are needed to determine the long-term outcomes of patients with clinically relevant incidental findings.