Controlled use of cranial computerized tomography.
This study attempts to assess the impact of computerized cranial tomography (CT) on clinical practice in a veterans hospital. A CT scan could be performed only if there existed a reasonable potential for the results to affect the patient's clinical course. We document many instances of how the 163 CT scans obtained during a one-year period aided patients. We quantitated one beneficial aspect by estimating the major neuroradiologic contrast procedures obviated by CT scan. Case-by-case review indicates 70 cerebral arteriograms and 58 pneumoencephalograms would have been performed had CT scanning not been available.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D002526:Cerebellar Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D003704:Dementia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D005260:Female; D006408:Hematoma, Subdural / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D002542:Intracranial Embolism and Thrombosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*