Advanced radiology utilization in a tertiary care emergency department from 2001 to 2010

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the utilization trends of advanced radiology, i.e. computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), examination in an emergency department (ED) of an academic medical center from 2001 to 2010. Copyright: Patients and Methods: We assessed the overall CT and MRI utilization, and the ED patient encounters. Each examination was evaluated according to the patient's age and anatomically relevant regions. Results: During the study period, 737,760 patient visited the ED, and 156,287 CT and 35,018 MRI examinations were performed. The number of annual ED patients increased from 63,770 in 2001 to 94,609 in 2010 (P = 0.018). The rate of CT utilization increased from 105.5 per 1000 patient visits in 2001 to 289.2 in 2010 (P, 60 (P, <20 vs. 108.7 per 1000 in age>60 (P,