title: Diagnostic yield of brain CT in a limited-access environment.
abstract: It is not clear why brain CT continues to be used in psychiatric patients in spite of reports of a low yield of useful information. Hypoihetically, in circumstances (such as in Israel) where access to CT is more limited, clinicians will use brain CT more judiciously, resulting in a higher yield. To test this hypothesis, we retrieved and reviewed brain CT results and discharge summaries for 23 patients with abnormal brain scans, from 91 scans performed at two psychiatric inpatient facilities, in order to determine if the brain CT had a significant effect on the diagnosis or treatment of the patient. We found no indication that the abnormal CT findings had a significant effect on the diagnosis or treatment of any of the patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer, affiliated with the Sadder School of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Israel.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Weiser
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hendler
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Prohovnik
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Davidson
keywords: computerized tomography; psychiatric patients