“How is a CT scan of your chest done?”

Chest CTs are performed like any CAT scan. You are placed on your back (typically), on the machine's tabletop partly within the CT machine's body opening. The machine takes its images within seconds and its computers manipulate those pictures and move those images to a Picture Archiving System (PACS) from which the radiologist analyzes them. Technologists place you on the tabletop of the machine and help you get off of the machine. Getting onto the tabletop and set up for the exam takes longer than the actual x-ray portion of the CT exam, which is very brief. Radiographers or a Recorded Voice may tell you commands such as holding your breath or do not move as with most x-ray exams. In most instances, Chest CTs are performed without the injection of contrast material into an intravenous line in your arm. However, decisions on how a specific exam is performed are based on why you need the exam, what the ordering doctor wants to know and the methods decided on by expert groups on how a specific exam should be performed. It is a fast and painless exam. Do not worry.