By combining different CT views, radiologists can better evaluate the GI tract

Combined evaluation of transverse images–horizontal slices of a standing body–and multiplanar coronal reformats–vertical slices from head to foot–from CT scans give radiologists more information about the GI tract to better diagnose problems, according to a new study by researchers from Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, GA.

For the study, the researchers analyzed routine abdomen-pelvis CT studies from 50 patients. The researchers found that with simultaneous review of transverse and coronal images, additional findings were recorded in 10 studies and the doctors had a higher confidence in interpreting 18 of the studies. All together, 281 lesions were detected on simultaneous review of coronal and transverse images, whereas 259 lesions were detected on transverse images alone.

To get these coronal reformats, data from a series of contiguous transverse scan images are recombined, manipulated or processed by the CT technologist at a computer workstation to produce images in the coronal plane.

“If radiologists can detect more findings using both transverse images and coronal reformats as our study suggests, it could definitely benefit patients. In addition, we are generating these coronal reformats from already acquired transverse images, so there is no extra radiation exposure to the patients. These images can be reconstructed from the transverse images at the CT console by the CT technologist in less than a minute,” said Sunit Sebastian, MD, lead author of the study.

The full results of the study will be presented on May 4, 2006 during the American Roentgen Ray Society Annual Meeting in Vancouver, BC.