The Clinical Usefulness of Routine Stacked Multiplanar Reconstruction in Helical Abdominal Computed Tomography

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Abstract
The authors evaluate the usefulness of stacked multiplanar reconstructions in routine, thick-section abdominal computed tomography. Twenty-five routine, thick-section contrast abdominal CTs performed with equivalent technique were reformatted by multiplanar reconstructions in sagittal and coronal planes sequentially from side-to-side and front-to-back. The image sets were submitted, first axial images only followed by axial plus multiplanar reconstructions(MPRs), to 5 separate physician readers including 2 radiologists and 3 nonradiologists. These readers graded the visualization of a variety of normal and up to 5 pathologic lesions per patient on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 = best). The addition of sagittal and coronal multiplanar reconstructions significantly improved the visualization of all normal anatomic structures (mean axial only, 3.8; mean axial plus MPR, 4.1; P P Stacked multiplanar reconstructions of routine, thick-section abdominal CT has clinical value in both the display of normal anatomic and pathologic lesions. Further studies, however, are required to confirm these findings before it is commonly used.