METHODS USED FOR LIVER COMPUTED-TOMOGRAPHY SCANNING IN COMMUNITY RADIOLOGY PRACTICE

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES. A survey conducted in 1987 of mostly academi c radiologists revealed that 8 of 22 (36%) respondents used bolus enha nced dynamic technique when performing computed tomography (CT) of the liver.(1) In the current study, the authors performed a new survey of private practice radiologists that was over four times larger and had more comprehensive questions. METHODS. An 18-item questionnaire was s ent to 260 members of the American College of Radiology. The answers f rom 98 usable responses were tallied and analyzed. RESULTS. Forty-six percent of the radiologists polled use bolus enhanced dynamic CT. Thir ty-three percent still use ionic contrast, and a significantly lower i odine dose was used when nonionic contrast was chosen. CONCLUSIONS. Th ere is general agreement in the imaging literature that dynamic enhanc ed scanning is the method of choice for detecting liver masses with CT . The authors speculate that cost and convenience considerations stron gly influence such decisions, because less than 50% the radiologists w e polled use this somewhat more expensive and time-consuming technique .