Detection of pulmonary embolism: comparison of paddlewheel and coronal CT reformations--initial experience.

In five patients with acute multilobar pulmonary embolism (PE) who were imaged with multi-detector row CT angiography, maximum intensity projection images were reformatted from axial images into rotated paddlewheel and coronal planes with three slab thicknesses and were reviewed for evidence of PE on a per-vessel basis with consensus of two readers. Paddlewheel reformations had a significantly higher percentage of overall detection of PE than did coronal reformations obtained with equivalent slab thickness (P <.0001). Paddlewheel reformations with 5.0-mm slab thickness had no significantly different percentage of overall detection of PE compared with that of axial images obtained with 2.5-mm collimation. Copyright RSNA, 2003.