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Abstract CT has become an attractive mean for safe, highly accurate, cost effective diagnosis of vascular diseases. Multislice CT became the first-line modality for imaging patients with suspected pulmonary embolism, thoracic aortic aneurysms or dissections. PE is a common diagnostic problem, particularly in hospitalized patients, with significant morbidity and mortality; the later reaching 30% in untreated cases. (79) Objective testing for PE is crucial, because clinical assessment alone is unreliable and the consequences of misdiagnosis are serious. Failure to diagnose PE is associated with high mortality and incorrect diagnosis of the condition unnecessarily exposes the patient to the risks of anticoagulant therapy. (80) CT is readily available at most institutions and is rapidly becoming the first-line imaging test for assessment of patients suspected for pulmonary embolism. However, conventional single-slice CT has insufficient sensitivity for isolated peripheral PE. (32) With CTPA, thrombus is directly visualized; mediastinal and parenchymal structures are evaluated, which may provide important alternative or additional diagnosises. (81) The use of Multidetector row CTA significantly improves pulmonary arterial visualization in the middle and peripheral lung zones. Narrow collimation improves the quality of the transverse and multiplanar images, and faster acquisition times make the examination better tolerated and improve contrast and spatial resolution, which improves detection of peripheral pulmonary emboli. The most recent generations of Multislice CT scanners appears to outperform competing imaging modalities for accurate detection of central and peripheral PE. |