New software aids virtual colonoscopy
By Ben Harder
From Chicago, at a meeting of the Radiological Society of North America
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Radiologists can use a new computer program to spot dangerous growths in the colon without probing inside the body, researchers report. The software could make virtual colonoscopy a more dependable alternative to conventional colonoscopy.
In the standard method, an optical probe passes along the length of the colon. That carries a small risk of injury and is more unpleasant—but, according to some studies, more accurate—than the virtual method, in which a computer images the colon using abdominal X rays.