The document discusses the CT scan, a diagnostic tool that uses x-rays to create images of the body. It describes how a patient lies on a narrow bed that slides into a large circular machine, where an x-ray tube and detector array spin around the patient to take cross-sectional images called slices. Modern CT scanners can perform a full scan within 10 seconds and prepare images just as quickly, allowing for early detection and treatment of disorders.

1. The CT Scan
By Rande Lazar MD

2. Introduction
• Rande Lazar, MD, diagnoses and treats disorders of
the ear, nose, and throat at ENT Memphis and
directs the training of fellows in pediatric
otolaryngology at the LeBonheur Children’s Medical
Center in Memphis, Tennessee. Board qualified in
head and neck surgery by the American Board of
Otolaryngology, Rande Lazar, MD, frequently uses a
computed tomography (CT) scanner to assist in
formulating his diagnoses.
First used in England in 1971, CT scanners are
diagnostic tools that use x-rays to create images of
the area of the body being examined.

3. CT Scan
• The patient lies down on a narrow bed that slides into
the main part of the CT scanner, which looks like a large
donut. Inside the “donut,” a complex combination of an
x-ray tube and detector array spin around the patient,
focusing on the center of the his or her body. Each full
360-degree rotation of the x-ray tube creates a cross-
sectional image of the area being scanned. These images,
called slices, are prepared by a computer using the raw
data provided by the scan.
The first CT scan took several hours to collect images
and then several days to prepare each of the dozens of
images taken.

4. Conclusion
• Modern CT scanners, by contrast, can perform an entire scan
of a patient within 10 seconds, and the associated computers
take about the same amount of time to prepare images from
the data collected.
CT scanning is especially useful in discovering the early onset
of many disorders or diseases, which in turn leads to early
treatment and an improved chance for complete recovery.
Because of its complexity, the doctors and technicians who
use CT scanners must be professionally trained and their
facility accredited. Accreditation is also an important issue for
insurance companies, which often do not reimburse non-
accredited facilities for CT scanning services. ENT Memphis is
accredited by ICACTL.