Dual Source CT in pediatrics
Two interesting questions about CT in pediatrics have been asked on DSCT.com some time ago. As Dr. Hyun Woo Goo, who is an expert in pediatrics, recently joined the DSCT expert community, DSCT.com asked him to comment on these questions as well. Read his answers here.
The following questions have been sent by Bellalize Steenkamp, radiographer, Unitas Hospital, South Africa.
1) Would you say that the DSCT is better equipped to do pediatrics than the normal multi-slice CT?
I can say that DSCT is the best system for pediatric cardiac CT. Temporal resolution of a CT system, 83 msec in DSCT, is the most essential parameter improving the image quality of pediatric cardiac CT because children usually have high heart rates. Image quality of normal (single-source) multi-slice CT systems would be degraded at these high heart rates. Chest CT is another field that can have benefits from DSCT. With DSCT, we can suppress cardiac pulsation artifacts on pediatric chest CT and can eliminate both cardiac pulsation and respiratory motion artifacts in free-breathing children when combined ECG- & respiratory triggering is applied to CT data acquisition (WIP). Dual energy CT applications are another merit of DSCT in children. For instance, we can obtain regional lung perfusion and ventilation function without additional CT dose and with intact high resolution anatomic information with this novel technique.
2) In certain cases, due to the less invasive procedure, would you say it is more appropriate than doing an angiogram?
I believe that lots of catheter angiography has been replaced by CT angiography in children. One recent example in my experience is preoperative evaluation of tetralogy of Fallot. Currently, total correction for tetralogy of Fallot is generally performed in young age (< several months of age). Traditionally, preoperative work-up consists of echocardiography and catheter cardiac angiography. This has changed into echocardiography and cardiac CT using DSCT at our institution. Other examples include preoperative evaluation of aortic arch anomalies, anomalous pulmonary venous connections, double outlet right ventricle, coronary artery anomalies, and so on.
Find more answers to these questions from Dr. Alkadhi.
