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Computed tomography of children
Pictures from inside the body help doctors to make the right diagnosis and thus ensure that the best possible treatment is given in case of a disease. Imaging procedures like computed tomography (CT) are technically complex and require large machines, which can cause various reactions in children ranging from curiosity to uncertainty and fear. The following chapters give children and parents some useful information about computed tomography and aim to reduce children's fears of such examinations.
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What is computed tomography?
Computed tomography is a special imaging procedure that uses the same X-rays as in a classic X-ray examination. CT images are much more precise, however. This is because a CT takes pictures of millimeter-thin layers of a selected region inside the body. The word tomography comes from the Greek and means 'depicting in layers or slices'.
Various types of tissue, such as bones, muscles and fat, as well as possible changes in tissue, can be shown much more clearly by a CT than by a simple X-ray. Furthermore, the computer can subsequently assemble the sectional views into a three-dimensional image, which gives the physician an exact 3D picture of certain body regions. This can be necessary before surgery on a complicated fracture, for example.
Text: Ute Wegner, Medical Advice: Prof. Dr. B. Stoever, Charité Berlin, Germany
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