Why write a book on emergency radiology? In many coun- decline. There is an increasing trend towards the use of tries, hospital emergency departments have become a MDCT to evaluate traumatic injuries and non-traumatic major part of the healthcare safety net. In the last decade emergencies. The use of workstations for reporting and for economically-driven structural changes in health care further image reconstruction becomes standard practice. delivery have caused a dramatic increase in emergency On the occasion of the European Congress of Radiology department visits. In response to capacity and staffing (ECR) 2003 and 2004 a Categorical Course on βEmergency pressures, hospitals are developing and implementing a Radiologyβhas been organized to assess current devel- variety of strategies designed to improve patient flow and ments and concepts in this rapidly growing field. reduce overcrowding in the emergency department. Numerous radiologists,all outstanding and international- Several factors are considered critical for success, such as ly renowned experts in their field,have made superb c- having the right multidisciplinary teams in place and opti- tributions in an ECR syllabus. These authors have now mizing the use of imaging tests. For a critical care physi- made a second effort and updated their contributions for cian it is paramount to obtain the images quickly and for this book. The chapters in the book mirror the topics p- them to be interpreted accurately. sented in the ECR course, encompassing imaging ap- To accomplish this, the emergency radiology division proaches as well as interventional aspects.