The diagnostic performance of our low-dose CT protocol for renal colic was excellent for all patients, and image quality and diagnostic confidence were significantly better for patients with a BMI≥25. However, our protocol also required exposure to a greater dose of radiation for these overweight and obese patients.

No abstract

Computed tomography (CT) has become the reference technique in medical imaging for renal colic, to diagnose, plan treatment and explore differential diagnosis. Its main limitation is the radiation dose, especially as urinary stone disease tends to relapse and mainly affects young people. It is therefore essential to reduce the CT radiation dose when renal colic is suspected. The goal of this review was twofold. First, we wanted to show how to use low-dose CT in patients with suspected renal colic in current clinical practice. Second, we wished to discuss the different ways of reducing CT radiation dose by considering both behavioral and technological factors. Among the behavioral factors, limiting the scan coverage area is a straightforward and effective way to reduce the dose. Improvement of technological factors relies mainly on using automatic tube current modulation, lowering the tube voltage and current as well using iterative reconstruction.

Gastric wall fatty infiltration was significantly more frequent in men older than 45 years and patients with a body mass index greater than 25. It may represent a normal finding, but its relation to other pathologic conditions related to obesity remains to be explored.

Abdominopelvic acquisition without contrast injection in addition to acquisition with contrast injection in a patient suspected of having multiple trauma does not improve detection of traumatic lesions of the liver, spleen, kidneys or adrenal glands, nor of intra- or retroperitoneal effusion, but increases the dose and should be abandoned.