Multislice CT's limit looks more like 64 than the sky

New 64-slice CT scanners offer dizzying possibilities for clinical imaging. But they can be too fast for some routine clinical applications.

"Don't expect to just plug in and start generating pretty pictures," said Dr. Richard Hallett at the Symposium on Multidetector-Row CT in San Francisco in June.

Faster scanning may produce substandard contrast imaging of solid organs and increased noise. Peak arterial enhancement can be easier to miss, especially with shorter contrast injection times. And a robust multislice program that relies on 64-slice CT is limited without sufficient PACS and IT capabilities to support it.

Sixty-four slices can improve routine CT imaging and significantly affect CT angiography and cardiac imaging. But radiologists must pay close attention to contrast injection protocols, table speed, image noise, and data storage requirements, Hallett said.