University of Miami radiologist Joel Fishman graciously accepted a request from Diagnostic Imaging that he write an article about imaging pulmonary embolism with CT, but he had one question: His center had not yet installed a multislice scanner. Would that be a problem?

Most imaging centers around the country don’t have multislice scanners, yet much of what is regarded as leading-edge CT work is being done on scanners with four or even eight detectors. When DI decided to profile sites that had worked with MSCT units long enough to comment on the changes they make to daily practice, every location the experts recommended was an academic institution.

The revolution in CT imaging that all of these research leaders predict—diagnosis built around volume rendering, a final farewell to film, the demise of radiologists’ beloved habit of reading every single image in a stack—is slowly transforming practices that have embraced multislice CT. It seems likely that these changes will spread as more imaging centers take the multislice plunge.

In the meantime, though, the clinical articles presented in this supplement to Diagnostic Imaging are relevant to all CT imagers. Whether imaging is done with one detector or eight, protocols to reduce radiation exposure in children are relevant across the board. Likewise, strategies to successfully image the aorta, colon, and lungs won’t wait for multidetector technology. Careful imaging, not the latest equipment, defines good CT practice.