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Noncardiac Incidental Findings on Cardiac CT: A Step-by-Step Approach

  • Cardiac Computed Tomography (S Achenbach and T Villines, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Noncardiac incidental findings on cardiac CT are remarkably common and some of these may have a significant impact on patient management. Herein, we present a straightforward and cost-effective step-by-step approach for identifying and reporting noncardiac incidental findings. In Step 1, we discuss the ‘ABCDEFG’ search pattern for systematically reviewing noncardiac organ systems. The most prevalent and clinically significant incidental findings are highlighted with strategies for increasing their conspicuity. In Step 2, the importance of reviewing clinical history and prior imaging studies is discussed. In Step 3, we provide a classification scheme and follow-up recommendations for incidental findings based on their potential clinical significance.

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Conflict of Interest

Christopher D. Maroules, Brian B. Ghoshhajra, Nagina Malguria, Michael Landay, Jed Hummel, Maros Ferencik, and Suhny Abbara declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, 5323 Harry Hines Boulevard, Dallas, TX, 75390-8896, USA

    Christopher D. Maroules, Nagina Malguria, Michael Landay, Jed Hummel & Suhny Abbara

  2. Cardiac MR PET CT Program, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Brian B. Ghoshhajra & Maros Ferencik

  3. Knight Cardiovascular Institute, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR, USA

    Maros Ferencik

Authors
  1. Christopher D. Maroules
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  2. Brian B. Ghoshhajra
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  3. Nagina Malguria
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  4. Michael Landay
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  5. Jed Hummel
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  6. Maros Ferencik
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  7. Suhny Abbara
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Correspondence to Christopher D. Maroules.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Cardiac Computed Tomography

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Maroules, C.D., Ghoshhajra, B.B., Malguria, N. et al. Noncardiac Incidental Findings on Cardiac CT: A Step-by-Step Approach. Curr Cardiovasc Imaging Rep 7, 9283 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12410-014-9283-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12410-014-9283-z

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