Pulmonary CT is helping pinpoint patients most likely to benefit from new minimally invasive therapies for emphysema, the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S.

One of the biggest mistakes made by specialists is overuse of CT in pediatrics, according to Dr. Donald Frush, chief of pediatric radiology at Duke University. As critical as multislice CT can be in evaluating pediatric patients, it’s not the right tool all the time.

Multislice CT is likely to take over and replace abdominal plain films if the CT dose can be reduced to a very low level. New research indicates that this is achievable, German radiologists reported Thursday.

X-ray tube current modulation, a popular feature available on newer multislice CT scanners, improves image quality but may result in a higher radiation dose, according to a report at the Stanford MDCT meeting on Wednesday.

Minimizing contrast while maximizing quality is a perennial challenge for CT imagers. But it can be met by following a few simple tips. The key is developing a protocol that makes the most of the contrast being used, said Dr. Michael Lev, director of emergency neuroradiology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, speaking at the Stanford Multidetector-Row CT meeting in San Francisco.

CT scanning of pregnant women is the source of considerable anxiety. But data indicate that many types of CT exams result in a negligible radiation dose to the fetus and should be performed when clinically necessary, according to a physicist’s presentation on Wednesday at the Stanford MDCT meeting.

Clinical trials, practice issues, and innovation in CT will be explored at this year’s Multidetector-Row CT (MDCT) Symposium, held June 14 to 17 in San Francisco.

Clinical trials, practice issues, and an innovation in CT -- dual-source imaging -- will be explored at this year’s Multidetector-Row CT Symposium held June 14 to 17 in San Francisco.