CT of Non-Traumatic Body Emergencies

The book aims to evaluate the diagnostic value of CT in patients with non traumatic body emergencies regarding neck, chest, abdomen, pelvis and extremities. The multidisciplinary adopted CT protocols are clearly discussed because they play an essential role in diagnostic imaging for detecting different features essential for the differential diagnosis of diverse patologies. The CT findings are correlated with clinical parameters that might correctly orientate the patients management. An ideal imaging method should ensure availability, high diagnostic accuracy, low invasiveness, low execution time, and low costs. Computed Tomography (CT) represents the “standard” imaging technique in the patient with non traumatic body emegencies due to the high diagnostic performance when a correct imaging protocol is adopted, despite radiation dose exposure and intravenous contrast agent administration. Technological advances in the field, lead to the development of post-processing techniques and dual-energy technology (DECT). DECT offers slight advantages over traditional CT by scanning the same anatomical structures with different energy and allowing them to improve the contrast resolution, adopting lower radiation and contrast medium doses.