SPIRAL CT OF THE ABDOMEN - CLINICAL-APPLICATIONS

Spiral CT is a technique for rapid scan acquisition. It involves conti nuous scanning as the patient is advanced at a constant rate through t he CT gantry. This eliminated interscan delay and the gap between scan slices. The acquired scan is a volume dataset, resulting in improved multidimensional displays. The entire abdomen is scanned within approx imately 30 s, so that optimal contrast dynamics for evaluation of the vasculature are easily obtained. High levels of parenchymal enhancemen t are readily achieved throughout the duration of the scan. These fact ors also contribute to the improved quality of the multidimensional di splays. In this article, applications and clinical experience with spi ral CT in the abdomen are reviewed.