out within 30 min, and back to work the same day, with no sedation and no loss of
function.
Since 2001, Dr. Danielle Hook, a pioneering researcher in CTC, has trained
hundreds of radiologists to perform and interpret CT colonography in Europe
(Hock et al., 2008). Dr. Hook by her daily practice demonstrated that CTC uses
safe, noninvasive X-ray technology to create detailed two- and three-dimensional
images of the colon and surrounding organs in less than minute, in contrast to
conventional colonoscopy, which uses a 200-cm long scope inserted in the patient’s
colon. Dr. Hook did experience CTC with a CT 16-row detector scanner by
developing new clinical acquisition protocols for abdomen scans and by designing
new post-processing visualization of the colon on her post-processing console. Both
improvements were the results of trial-and-error processes, associated with several
hundred clinical cases.
Such a clinical experience did drive the development of automate virtual dissection of the colon, based on the doctor’s requirements.
10 This collaborative effort did
result in features such as 3D virtual endoscopy; 2D reformats in any spatial plane,
and auto-dissection of halves in rotation around the long axis of the colon. The
professional association, ESGAR,
11 European Society of Gastrointestinal and
Abdominal Radiology, did facilitate the rapid expansion, since 2003, through series
of workshops or hands-on trainings taught by CTC experts in Rome/Italy (2004),
Bruges/Belgium (2005), Edinburgh/U.K. (2006), Pisa/Italy (2006), Nizza/Italy
(2007), Malmö/Sweden (2007), Vigo/Spain (2008), Berlin/Germany (2008) (Taylor,
Laghi, Lefere, Halligan, & Stoker, 2007). In parallel, this clinical procedure was
widely tested in the United States (Yee et al., 2003). Our field study shows that CT
colonography rapidly gained acceptance, as shown by the number of occurrence of
this term in medical publications from 1997 to 2019 in Fig. 1.
2.3 CT Cardiac Imaging
Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the result of a process called atherosclerosis
through which plaque forms on the inner layer of the coronary arteries and impedes
the flow of blood to the heart. If untreated, the eventual outcome of the process may
be a heart attack.
12 For some years now, cardiovascular disease has been the leading
cause of mortality in Western countries. Progress in the field of cardiac imaging has
encouraged the development of a reproducible, reliable, noninvasive technique that
10 For instance, some patent reference can be found under the U.S. Patent 7,274,811 entitled Method
and apparatus for synchronizing corresponding landmarks among a plurality of images for which
Renaud Capolunghi is accredited among the inventers.
11 As a European Subspecialty Society, ESGAR is an institutional member of the European Society
of Radiology http://www.esgar.org/
12 The information about coronary artery disease is primarily from Medline Plus (http://medline.
gov/)
108
J. Galbrun
function.
Since 2001, Dr. Danielle Hook, a pioneering researcher in CTC, has trained
hundreds of radiologists to perform and interpret CT colonography in Europe
(Hock et al., 2008). Dr. Hook by her daily practice demonstrated that CTC uses
safe, noninvasive X-ray technology to create detailed two- and three-dimensional
images of the colon and surrounding organs in less than minute, in contrast to
conventional colonoscopy, which uses a 200-cm long scope inserted in the patient’s
colon. Dr. Hook did experience CTC with a CT 16-row detector scanner by
developing new clinical acquisition protocols for abdomen scans and by designing
new post-processing visualization of the colon on her post-processing console. Both
improvements were the results of trial-and-error processes, associated with several
hundred clinical cases.
Such a clinical experience did drive the development of automate virtual dissection of the colon, based on the doctor’s requirements.
10 This collaborative effort did
result in features such as 3D virtual endoscopy; 2D reformats in any spatial plane,
and auto-dissection of halves in rotation around the long axis of the colon. The
professional association, ESGAR,
11 European Society of Gastrointestinal and
Abdominal Radiology, did facilitate the rapid expansion, since 2003, through series
of workshops or hands-on trainings taught by CTC experts in Rome/Italy (2004),
Bruges/Belgium (2005), Edinburgh/U.K. (2006), Pisa/Italy (2006), Nizza/Italy
(2007), Malmö/Sweden (2007), Vigo/Spain (2008), Berlin/Germany (2008) (Taylor,
Laghi, Lefere, Halligan, & Stoker, 2007). In parallel, this clinical procedure was
widely tested in the United States (Yee et al., 2003). Our field study shows that CT
colonography rapidly gained acceptance, as shown by the number of occurrence of
this term in medical publications from 1997 to 2019 in Fig. 1.
2.3 CT Cardiac Imaging
Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the result of a process called atherosclerosis
through which plaque forms on the inner layer of the coronary arteries and impedes
the flow of blood to the heart. If untreated, the eventual outcome of the process may
be a heart attack.
12 For some years now, cardiovascular disease has been the leading
cause of mortality in Western countries. Progress in the field of cardiac imaging has
encouraged the development of a reproducible, reliable, noninvasive technique that
10 For instance, some patent reference can be found under the U.S. Patent 7,274,811 entitled Method
and apparatus for synchronizing corresponding landmarks among a plurality of images for which
Renaud Capolunghi is accredited among the inventers.
11 As a European Subspecialty Society, ESGAR is an institutional member of the European Society
of Radiology http://www.esgar.org/
12 The information about coronary artery disease is primarily from Medline Plus (http://medline.
gov/)
108
J. Galbrun