Radiography Imaging Techniques

The median nerve travels through the carpal tunnel and normally should not present variations in signal or thickness. Main findings in cases of compressive neuropathy (carpal tunnel syndrome) are thickening of the nerve proximal to the entrance of the tunnel with associated increased signal on the fluid-sensitive sequences (Figure 13). However, the findings may not be specific. More recently, diffusion tensor MRI (DTI) has been studied as a new tool for diagnosing neuropathy.25The role of MRI in carpal tunnel syndrome is to exclude a potential cause for the symptoms, such as flexor tenosynovitis, or masses/cysts within the carpal tunnel.26An incidental bifid median nerve and/or a persistent median artery should also be depicted and reported (Figure 14).27 MRI after carpal tunnel release is sometimes indicated to evaluate recurrence of symptoms. Normal postoperative findings include a complete surgical defect of the flexor retinaculum and volar extrusion of the carpal tunnel componen

ECG gating, beta blockers, and pinpoint contrast timing bump up image quality, especially in problematic patients By: Karen Sandrick Although the heart and its vasculature dominate the center of a conventional chest CT scan, they have for the most part been ignored by radiologists. They tend to leave the diagnosis of cardiovascular disease to cardiologists skilled in viewing the beating heart on echocardiograms or evaluating nuclear medicine physiology studies. Faced with motion artifact on CT that blurs tissue edges, radiologists have lacked confidence to make definitive diagnoses of coronary artery stenosis or global cardiac disease. But as multidetector technology produces sharper images, radiologists are beginning to recognize CT's potential for generating maps of the pulmonary veins, assessing the patency of stents and coronary artery bypass grafts, ruling out pulmonary embolus, tracing collateral vessel development, and even looking at wall motion defects. Learning