The multislice CT revolution continued unabated in 2003, with the new 16-slice scanners introduced at last year’s RSNA conference permeating through radiology practices during the year. But vendors don’t appear to be ready for any radically new leaps in scanning technology -- such as a 32-slice scanner -- at this year’s meeting.
More slices means that radiologists can have their cake and eat it too, achieving both high resolution and fast scanning. It's paying off in a wide range of applications, from virtual colonoscopy to cardiac imaging, and from small bones to solid organs.
Look for vendors at this year’s RSNA to highlight their 16-slice technology, but to also focus on enhancements introduced during the year that speed up the imaging chain. New x-ray tubes, generators, and computer platforms have all been introduced to keep pace with quantum leaps in detector development.
Image processing will become increasingly important as radiologists struggle to cope with an ever-rising flood of data being produced by the new scanners. Techniques like 3-D post-processing and review and computer-aided detection (CAD) are becoming integral components of the multislice revolution, a trend that will be evident at this year’s meeting.
By Brian CaseyAuntMinnie.com staff writer
November 14, 2003
![Images show the pectoralis muscles of a healthy male individual who never smoked (age, 66 years; height, 178 cm; body mass index [BMI, calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared], 28.4; number of cigarette pack-years, 0; forced expiratory volume in 1 second [FEV1], 97.6% predicted; FEV1: forced vital capacity [FVC] ratio, 0.71; pectoralis muscle area [PMA], 59.4 cm2; pectoralis muscle volume [PMV], 764 cm3) and a male individual with a smoking history and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) (age, 66 years; height, 178 cm; BMI, 27.5; number of cigarette pack-years, 43.2, FEV1, 48% predicted; FEV1:FVC, 0.56; PMA, 35 cm2; PMV, 480.8 cm3) from the Canadian Cohort Obstructive Lung Disease (i.e., CanCOLD) study. The CT image is shown in the axial plane. The PMV is automatically extracted using the developed deep learning model and overlayed onto the lungs for visual clarity.](https://img.auntminnie.com/mindful/smg/workspaces/default/uploads/2026/03/genkin.25LqljVF0y.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&crop=focalpoint&dpr=2&fit=crop&h=167&q=70&w=250)
