Comparison of spiral CT and conventional CT in 3D visualization of facial trauma: work in progress

Spiral computed tomography (SCT) differs from conventional CT (CCT) in that regions of the body can be rapidly imaged via continuous scanning. This is accompanied by simultaneous advancement of the patient, thus allowing volumetric data acquisition of up to 60 cm in less than a minute. Thus motion is minimized and slice misregistration is minimized when multiplanar and three dimensional reconstructions are performed. This paper compares the utility of SCT and CCT in facial trauma. A total of six patients were studied with either CCT or SCT of the face after trauma. SCT scans were obtained using a Siemens Somatom Plus-S CT scanner (2 mm thick collimation and 3 mm/sec table feed for 32 s). Three-dimensional (3D) and multiplanar reconstruction images of the facial bones were generated after appropriate thresholds were selected by the radiologist; similar images generated with a CCT (GE quick 9800) were compared using a three point scale with kappa analysis. SCT is able to generate axial and reformatted images of comparable quality to CCT (k = 0.47-0.89) in less than half the time to perform an examination (26 min vs 63 min). SCT can rapidly produce (3D) and multiplanar reformatted images of facial trauma with minimal motion, or misregistration artifact when compared to CCT.