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CT images of the head are used to investigate and diagnose brain injuries and other neurological conditions, as well as other conditions involving the skull or sinuses; it used to guide some brain surgery procedures as well. [2] CT scans expose the person getting them to ionizing radiation which has a risk of eventually causing cancer; some ...
CT scans can expose patients to levels of radiation 100-500 times higher than traditional x-rays, with higher radiation doses producing better resolution imaging. [37] While easy to use, increases in CT scan use, especially in asymptomatic patients, is a topic of concern since patients are exposed to significantly high levels of radiation. [36]
The radiation doses received from CT scans is variable. Compared to the lowest dose X-ray techniques, CT scans can have 100 to 1,000 times higher dose than conventional X-rays. [149] However, a lumbar spine X-ray has a similar dose as a head CT. [150] Articles in the media often exaggerate the relative dose of CT by comparing the lowest-dose X ...
Iodinated contrast contains iodine.It is the main type of radiocontrast used for intravenous administration.Iodine has a particular advantage as a contrast agent for radiography because its innermost electron ("k-shell") binding energy is 33.2 keV, similar to the average energy of x-rays used in diagnostic radiography.
This movement ensures the contrast has sufficiently worked its way through the spinal cord, followed by X-rays or a CT scan. Post-procedure care centers around ensuring that infection (especially skin or subcutaneous infections, myelitis or meningitis or encephalitis , or sepsis ) does not set in and that the "plug" at the site of the spinal ...
These images look as though the patient was sliced like bread (thus, "tomography" – "tomo" means "slice"). Though CT uses a higher amount of ionizing x-radiation than diagnostic x-rays (both utilising X-ray radiation), with advances in technology, levels of CT radiation dose and scan times have reduced. [9]
The most commonly used intravenous contrast agents are based on chelates of gadolinium, which is highly paramagnetic. [55] In general, these agents have proved safer than the iodinated contrast agents used in X-ray radiography or CT. Anaphylactoid reactions are rare, occurring in approx. 0.03–0.1%. [56]
Radionuclide cisternography may be used to diagnose a spinal cerebrospinal fluid leak. CSF pressure is measured and imaged over 24 hours. [2] A radionuclide (radioisotope) is injected by lumbar puncture (spinal tap) into the cerebral spinal fluid to determine if there is abnormal CSF flow within the brain and spinal canal which can be altered by hydrocephalus, Arnold–Chiari malformation ...