Two hundred consecutive patients with severe head injury underwent sequential computed tomography (CT) on admission, after 4, 14, and 90 days, and after one year. Ventricular enlargement was evaluated in the surviving patients, based upon serial CT examinations. Significant ventricular enlargement was further evaluated with radionuclide cisternography. A significant correlation was shown between clinical outcome and presence or absence of ventricular enlargement. Radionuclide cisternography provided an additional means of determining those patients whose recovery was impaired by persistent obstruction of cerebrospinal fluid circulation and who would therefore benefit from cerebrospinal fluid shunting.

Contrast enhancement simulating an abscess or residual tumor has been described in postoperative cranial computed tomography (CT) scans. This study was undertaken to determine the cause of this contrast enhancement by using canine brain as an experimental model. Sequential CT scanning was performed with and without contrast enhancement following partial resection of the right hemisphere, and the CT findings were correlated with the histological changes. Findings indicate that enhancement of the surgical margin is related both temporally and spatially to the neovascularity following surgery. The ring-like enhancement around the surgical margin is seen best at two to four weeks after surgery, and may simulate an abscess. However, edema seen around an abscess in adjacent brain is absent or minimal in the case of postoperative enhancement during this period, and this feature should help differentiate these entities.

A computer program was created to identify and accept spatial data regarding the location of the thoracic and lumbar vertebral bodies on scoliosis films. With this information, the spine can be mathematically reconstructed and a scoliotic angle calculated. There was a 0.968 positive correlation between the computer and manual methods of measuring scoliosis. The computer method was more reproducible with a standard deviation of only 1.3 degrees. Computerized measurement of scoliosis also provides better evaluation of the true shape of the curve.

Contrast enhancement in the brain on computed tomography (CT) after an operation was studied in otherwise healthy dogs to evaluate the stages of enhancement caused by surgical changes. Serial CT scanning was done with and without contrast enhancement following a partial posterior parietal lobectomy. Pathologic correlation was obtained. Contrast enhancement occurred as early as one week, with peak incidence occurring between two and six weeks. Enhancement was diminishing or absent by the eight week after operation. Separate components of enhancement secondary to breakdown of the blood-brain barrier and to vascular granulation tissue may be distinguishable.

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