Early Experience with the Varian Six Second Body Scanner in the Diagnosis of Hepatobiliary Tract Disease

Abstract

Thirty-four patients with liver disease were studied with a research model of the Varian Six Second body scanner. Useful information was gained in patients with a variety of hepatic disorders. This scanner permits resolution of normal hepatic parenchymal detail which has not been reported previously and has reduced the streak artifacts originating from high- and low-CT objects which have been a major source of image degradation with other units.

Computed tomographic and ultrasonic appearances of primary carcinoma of the common bile duct

“…Dilatation of the intrahepatic biliary system points to the presence of an obstructing lesion and is well demonstrated by both methods. Furthermore, these techniques frequently reveal the nature of the obstructing lesion [4][5][6][7][8]. However, not all patients with obstructive jaundice show such a clearcut pattern.…”

CT-Pathologic Correlations in Hodgkin's Disease and Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma

“…Patients with Stage IV disease documented by the preliminary evaluation and those with medical contraindications do not undergo a staging laparotomy. Patients were scanned on a factory prototype model of a CT scanner developed by Varian Associates, which has been described in detail elsewhere (5). Briefly, it uses a fan-shaped beam with a 34 0 arc, measuring 7.5 mm in thickness at the center of the patient.…”

“…Obliteration of either the aortic contour or of the anterior or lateral contours of the psoas muscles, which are normally well seen on CT, was always interpreted as abnormal and as an indication of para-aortic or para-iliac adenopathy consistent with lymphoma except in cachectic patients (Figs. 1,4,5). Splenic size on CT was determined by asking three independent observers to categorize each of the 18 spleens as "normal," "bor- B. CT scan of the same patient shows para-aortic lymphadenopathy (arrows) obliterating portions of the contours of the aorta and inferior vena cava.…”

How CT happened: the early development of medical computed tomography

“…40 Varian Associates developed a unique system, the first of which was installed at Stanford in late 1975. 13,41 Early prototypes had a 6-s rotation time, but all production systems starting in 1976 were 3-s scanners. Like most of the other early third-generation scanners, it had a xenon ionization chamber (301 channels) and pulsed x-ray source, but unlike all the other systems of the time, it had a slip-ring that supported continuous gantry rotation.…”