Southwestern Medical Center

Computerized Tomography or CT Scan

Computerized Tomography or CT scan is a noninvasive medical test that helps physicians diagnose and treat a host of medical conditions. CT Scanning involves specialized x-ray equipment along with computers that produce multiple images of the body.

It produces 3-D images of cross sectional parts of the body. CT scans are commonly used to diagnose strokes, hemorrhage, tumors, internal injuries and abnormalities. CT can distinguish differences in bone, tissue, blood, fat, gas, and fluid. These scans determine if a growth is cystic or solid and if an organ’s shape and size are abnormal. During a CT scan the patient will have to lie flat on a table, as the table slowly passes through the center of a large x-ray machine, the images will be produced. This is a painless procedure. IV and oral contrast are often utilized to aid in CT scans to enhance certain structures on the images.

Think of the scan results as a loaf of sliced bread. Your physician can look at each of the slices individually, or perform additional visualization to make 3-D image reconstruction.

Southwestern Medical Center CT can perform head, neck, chest, abdomen, pelvis and extremities. The hi- speed, 32 slice CT technology allows for 3D image reconstruction which provides improved imaging capabilities.