Hints In General - Siemens SOMATOM Emotion 6 Application Manual

Children

Hints in General

1. Topograms: 256 mm lateral topograms are defined
for the head modes, and 512 mm AP topograms are
defined for the body modes. Please keep in mind that
the children's size can be dramatically different. You
should press the "Hold Measurement" button when-
ever the range shown on the real time growing topo-
gram is long enough, in order to avoid unnecessary
radiation.
2. Gantry tilt is available for both, sequence and spiral
scanning. However, image artefacts may occur if spirals
are acquired with a tilt angle greater than 8°.
3. For all head studies, it is very important for image
quality purposes to position the patient in the center of
the scan field. Use the lateral laser beam to make sure
that the patient is positioned in the center.
4. Warm surroundings and dimmed lighting are help-
ful to make children more cooperative.
5. Sedation: Although the advent of the Multislice CT
scanner has enabled the user to scan through an area
of interest much faster than ever, sometimes, patient
motion can still lead to severe motion artifacts seen on
the resultant images. This becomes a factor especially
with infants and younger children who are unable to
hold still for the exam. Sedating this population may
be a viable option for your institution. Of course, appro-
priate protocols need to be established at your specific
institution. For instance, the drug of choice for specific
ages/weights of these patients (taking into conside-
ration the total time of the exam), the form of admini-
stration, patient preps, adequate monitoring of the
patient (pre-scan, during the exam and post-scan) etc.
should all be taken into consideration.
26