Chapter 11 Intensive Care Unit

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SECTION 1 • Techniques and Methods in Critical Care

Transverse plane

Frontal (coronal) plane

Sagittal plane

FIGURE 11-11. Top: The two-dimensional imaging planes. The “transverse” plane is also termed “axial.” Bottom: Three planes of view for head CT.

Chest CT and MRI The chest CT finds many applications in intensive care unit practice, particularly when contrast can be used to highlight the vasculature and sharply distin- guish parenchyma from pleural space. Often, CT is the only practical way to image the lung in very obese individuals, as the bedside CXR cannot adequately penetrate the chest wall to reveal the obscured lung characteristics. It is prudent, therefore, for all critical

care unit practitioners to become familiar with the basic elements of axial chest CT interpretation (Fig. 11-13) and to be aware of coronal and sagittal plane reconstructions (Fig. 11-14A and B). Although indispensible to modern critical care practice, CT scanning (and MRI) has sig- nificant limitations in the critically ill population. Continuing technical advancements in modern CT scanners expedite the process of image acquisition