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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

How Multidetector CT Can Help Open Bike helped in identifying the combination
Locks of a German-made high-quality bicycle
lock.
From
We used a 64-section CT scanner
Henning Meyer, MD, Marc Dewey,
(Aquillon 64; Toshiba Medical Systems,
MD, Ahi Sema Issever, MD, and
Nasu, Japan) with 0.5-mm detector col-
Patrick Rogalla, MD
limation and the following parameters:
Department of Radiology, Charité-
350 mA, 120 kV, pitch of 0.33, and 0.4-
Universitätsmedizin Berlin,
second rotation time. Images were re-
Chariteplatz 1, Berlin 10117,
constructed by using a smooth abdomi-
Germany
nal kernel (FC12). Reconstruction was
e-mail: Henning.Meyer@charite.de
performed with 0.5-mm section thick-
Editor: ness in 0.4-mm increments. Orthogonal
multiplanar reformations were viewed
Multidetector computed tomography (CT)
with the scanner’s workstation to iden-
has revolutionized today’s medicine.
tify the correct code combination. Dials of the lock at 64-section CT in transverse
However, only little is known about its
Our result is shown in the Figure. reformation. The individual notches are clearly
impact on everyday problems. Recently,
The positions of the dials were prepared visible.
the son of the first author discovered
to show digit 0 on the right side of the
that he could not remember the combi-
lock. The positions of all other digits are
nation of his bike lock. Fortunately at
shown on an overlay. By following the
this point the lock was not on his bike.
position of each notch, one can clearly
Conservative problem-solving approaches
identify the combination of the lock. It is
attempted for several days remained
1789.
unsuccessful. The little boy was left an-
M.D. is a principal investigator of a
gry. Therefore, we decided to use an
multicenter study on multidetector CT
unorthodox method to tackle this prob-
coronary angiography sponsored by
lem.
Toshiba Medical Systems and serves
As conventional radiographs de-
as a speaker for Toshiba Medical Sys-
liver only a superimposed image of the
tems.
complete lock, we here describe for
the first time how multidetector CT

Radiology: Volume 245: Number 3—December 2007 921