the thoughts of a surgeon in the notorious province of mpumalanga, south africa. comments on the private and state sector. but mostly my personal journey through surgery.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
ct scans
i'm usually quite good at reading ct scans, but this one just left me with one big question mark.
mary, the lung window is very useful to look for free air in the abdomen because of the attenuated difference between air and pretty much anything else. but in this case we specifically took one plate (enlarged too which you may also find freaky in your neck of the woods) in the lung window because the question mark was more pronounced in the lung window. this is due to the attenuated difference as spelt out above if you want to get really academic. however, when we did it, we just looked at it in both lung and soft tissue window and chose the one we deemed to look the best.
I guess you could see air alot better that way...I'm so narrow minded in my thought process, it's great to hear about stuff like that.
I still grumble when I have to print scans out on film...I don't understand why they'd be easier to view as a 2x3 picture on a view box as opposed on a screen where you can blow it up, and switch between windows yada yada yada...
mary, yes scans on the screen are infinitely better than plates for all the reasons you give (including yada yada yada). here the radiologists report off the screen but print plates for the clinicians. i read all my own scans so i spend quite a bit of time in the radiology rooms. the radiologists joke that i have a diploma in radiology.
i'm usually quite good at reading ct scans, but this one just left me with one big question mark.
lq2m
ReplyDeleteHow did you get inside my head like that?
ReplyDeleteBrilliant.
ReplyDeleteyay for the sigmoid colon. Tho why were you looking at in a lung window? freaky.
ReplyDeletemary, the lung window is very useful to look for free air in the abdomen because of the attenuated difference between air and pretty much anything else. but in this case we specifically took one plate (enlarged too which you may also find freaky in your neck of the woods) in the lung window because the question mark was more pronounced in the lung window. this is due to the attenuated difference as spelt out above if you want to get really academic. however, when we did it, we just looked at it in both lung and soft tissue window and chose the one we deemed to look the best.
ReplyDeleteI guess you could see air alot better that way...I'm so narrow minded in my thought process, it's great to hear about stuff like that.
ReplyDeleteI still grumble when I have to print scans out on film...I don't understand why they'd be easier to view as a 2x3 picture on a view box as opposed on a screen where you can blow it up, and switch between windows yada yada yada...
mary, yes scans on the screen are infinitely better than plates for all the reasons you give (including yada yada yada). here the radiologists report off the screen but print plates for the clinicians. i read all my own scans so i spend quite a bit of time in the radiology rooms. the radiologists joke that i have a diploma in radiology.
ReplyDelete