Commentary on “Computed Tomography of the Body: Initial Clinical Trial with the EMI Prototype” and “Computed Tomography of the Body: Early Trends in Application and Accuracy of the Method”

AJR:191, July 2008 community has been immediate, unreserved, and overwhelming, even without well documented proof of its clinical usefulness.” Ter-Pogossian also observed that “more than a dozen other companies have rapidly turned their interests to this field” [5]. The startling early images from EMI CT scanners led to both my personal consternation and my excitement as I came to regret foolishly complaining about having to learn useless cross-sectional anatomy as a first-year medical student. It quickly became apparent that the enthusiasm engendered by the new scanners helped to entice a new generation of medical students, like me, into the career of radiology. Yet, considerable resistance to the dis semination of CT occurred in these early years. Government agencies instituted stringent “certificate of need” constraints, fearing the adoption of an expensive, unproven technique. Many seasoned clinicians could not accept that CT diagnosis could surpass their own physical diagnosis. Also, some radiologists were intimidated by an unfamiliar, complex new technology and by the need to learn new techniques, anatomy, and diagnostic criteria. Therefore, such forces prevented even more rapid growth for CT. Yet, examinations were already increasing inexorably to a rate of 3,000,000 per year by 1980 [6]. Up to the time of the publication of these articles, less than a handful of prior reports of the use of CT for the body had been published [7–10]. Although among the most frequently cited articles from the AJR and representing appreciable series of cases, the Sheedy et al. [2] description of 400 cases and Stanley et al. [3] analysis of 275 cases do not represent transcendent, rigorous models of scientific in quiry. The studies were prospec tive; Commentary on “Computed Tomography of the Body: Initial Clinical Trial with the EMI Prototype” and “Computed Tomography of the Body: Early Trends in Application and Accuracy of the Method”