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The advent of helical CT (computed tomography) has greatly enhanced the diagnostic armamentarium of the radiologist in both the detection and characterization of thoracic pathology. Introduced into clinical practice in 1989, spiral CT has already altered the basic concepts of routine CT scanning of thorax. The advantages of helical CT are consequent to the nature of the technique, which entails the acquisition of volumetric data during a single breath hold (1,2). This results in elimination of respiratory misregistration which occurs in conventional incremental scanning. Moreover the examination time of the entire chest is dramatically reduced to a single breath hold of 30-35 seconds. The shorter scan time results in reduction of volume of intravenous contrast requirement. These advantages of Spiral CT result in improved detection and characterization of lesions, improved multiplanar and 3-D imaging and excellent evaluation of vascular pathologies (CT angiography).
