Specifically, they looked at the reliability between scans to provide equivalent stone data, namely stone size and density.
A retrospective review was performed on eight patients who presented to the emergency department with renal colic. These patients received a conventional dose scan as part of their initial workup, which diagnosed their stone. These patients then presented on a different admission, after an interval of 0 to 51 days, with repeat complaints of renal colic. They received a low dose CT scan during this second visit for workup of known history of urinary stone. An experienced GU radiologist then reviewed these two scans, and the same stones on both scans were measured for both size and density in Hounsfield units. They found no significant differences in size or density measurements, however there was a significant reduction in radiation dose by an average of 74% (p = 0.002).
They concluded that low dose scans could be reliably used to provide equivalent stone characteristics with a significant radiation dose reduction.
Best Poster
Presented by William Sohn, et al. at the American Urological Association (AUA) Annual Meeting - May 14 - 19, 2011 - Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington, DC USA
Reported for UroToday by Phillip Mucksavage, MD, Department of Urology, University of California, Irvine.
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