Article: Virtual colonoscopy on a par with traditional method

A new study finds that virtual colonoscopy, a method that uses a C.T. scanner for colon cancer screening, can be just as effective as traditional colonoscopy in finding polyps, the mushroomlike growths from which most cancers arise.

Patients having the 15-minute virtual screening test simply lie down and hold their breath for about 10 seconds, exhale, then hold their breath again while a C.T. scanner X-rays their colons, creating detailed, three-dimensional images of the walls. With traditional colonoscopy, patients are sedated while a doctor threads a long flexible tube into the colon, spending half an hour viewing its walls in much the same sort of detail. Then they wait in a recovery ...

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