CT Neck procedure

 

CT Neck indication,Technique and Procedure

• Suspicion and staging of tumor pathology.
• Cervical inflamatory & infectious pathology.
• Trauma.
• Salivary gland pathology.
• Identification of palpable masses or cervical adenopathis.
• Vascular malformatioins.
• bleeding/epistaxis. 
• congenital anomalies.
• head and neck cancer therapy response and follow up.

Technique 

• Patient preparation : Fast for 6 to 8 hours,bring kidney function test and remove     all metallic objects from the patients head and neck.
• Pt position:Supine,head towards the gantry,arms down at the side of the body.
• Tube voltage : 120 to 130 kVp.
• mAs : 130
• Scout : Mandibular angle to sterno-clavicular jointt.
• Scan direction : Caudocranial.
• Scan geometry Slice thickness 0.5 mm.
• Respiration phase :  Suspended.

Contrast protocol : 

• Non-contrast performed first.
• Delayed phase post-contrast acquisition.
• Post-contrast 50 cc hand injection.

Multiplanar reconstructions:

• Sagittal : sagittal aligned through the center of the vertebral bodies & the chin
• Coronal images: coronal aligned to the transverse processes and the mandibula
• Axial images: perpendicular to the head-neck axis

CT Scan of neck with contrast