CT Colonography: Digital Subtraction Bowel Cleansing with Mucosal Reconstruction— Initial Observations

Abstract

The authors evaluated a computed tomography (CT) colonographic technique with a combination of preexamination orally ingested positive contrast material and postacquisition image processing to subtract out the ingested opacified bowel contents. With this technique, rigorous physical purging of the bowel was not necessary before structural examination of the colon. With images obtained in 20 patients, two readers were able to correctly identify the majority of polyps confirmed at colonoscopy. Their performance for detection of lesions larger than 1 cm was similar to that with conventional CT colonography.