Dear CT Insider,
Often it falls to junior doctors to refer patients for a CT scan, so it's important they have a sound knowledge of the modality.
A survey from Australia has shown there are gaps in the understanding of junior medical officers about contrast phases. On the plus side, respondents displayed a willingness to learn more about this topic. Get the full story in today's top article.
CT radiation doses have decreased significantly over the past decade, but more work needs to be done to manage radiation dose in young people, according to Spanish-led research. The authors studied the radiology records of 276 hospitals linked to population-based cancer registries and looked at nearly 950,000 patients who underwent a CT scan before the age of 22.
Another Spanish study has focused on the rising incidence of severe gastrointestinal illness due to eating undercooked or raw fish and seafood. CT is proving valuable in these cases, as the authors' two clinical figures show. Don't miss this eye-opening report.
In other news, a review of hundreds of scans performed at Letterkenny University Hospital in County Donegal, Ireland, is underway. This follows an article in the Irish Times that the CT scans reported by a locum radiologist contained an astonishing error rate of 37%.
Radiomics -- a technique to quantitatively capture tumor characteristics on readily available CT scans -- appears to be developing fast, as confirmed by the findings of a U.K.-led study published recently.
The stories featured in this newsletter are just a sample of the material we've posted during the last month or so in the CT Community. See the list below for all our full coverage. Also, please contact me at any time if you have ideas for the future.
