CT studies

[Mulletfluf]

Hello everyone! First time poster on this board, so bear with me. I have been trying to gather some basic information on CT study protocols and I've been having quite a bit of trouble locating resources. I am trying to determine the angle of the CT gantry for various studies (head and neck vs. pelvis vs. thorax). When imaging a patient do you tilt the gantry to a certain angle for a certain study or no? If anyone could direct me as to a specific text that outlines these questions that would be a huge help. Thanks!

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[Docxter]

www.ctisus.org

In this day and age of 16 and 64 detector scanners, very few studies actually require a gantry tilt. For single, double, and some 4 slice scanners and non-helical machines, gantry tilt was often needed, but the great multiplanar capabilities provided by the newer scanners has for the most part obviated that need. That said, there are quite a few old timer radiologists who still do direct coronal sinus CTs or direct coronal temporal bones on a 64 slice machine when it's really not needed.

Gantry tilt is sometimes now used for studies of the larynx (through the plane of the vocal fold, though this could also be done in postscan reformats), in some head and neck studies of the mouth and oral cavity where the dental streaks are minimized by scanning twice with two gantry tilt locations and trying to get them off the area of interest, in pediatric cases to try to not include the lens in the scan slices if possible, and in CT guided procedures.