Limit Computed Tomography (CT) Scanning in Suspected Renal Colic
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT01352676. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.
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Official title
Validation of a Decision Rule to Limit CT Scanning in Suspected Renal Colic
Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
Computed tomography (CT) scanning is overused, expensive, and causes cancer. CT scan utilization in the U.S. has increased from an estimated 3 million CTs in 1980 to 62 million per year in 2007. From 2000 through 2006, Medicare spending on imaging more than doubled to $13.8 billion with advanced imaging such as CT scanning largely responsible. CT represents only 11% of radiologic examinations but is responsible for two-thirds of the ionizing radiation associated with medical imaging in the U.S. Recent estimates suggest that there will be 12.5 cancer deaths for every 10,000 CT scans. Renal colic is a common, non-life-threatening condition for which CT is overused. As many as 12% of people will have a kidney stone in their lifetime, and more than one million per year will present to the emergency department (ED). CT is now a first line test for renal colic, and is very accurate. However, 98% of kidney stones 5mm or smaller will pass spontaneously, and CT rarely alters management. A decision rule is needed to determine which patients with suspected renal colic require CT. While the signs and symptoms of renal colic have been shown to be predictable, no rule has yet been rigorously derived or validated to guide CT imaging in renal colic. A subset of patients with suspected renal colic may have a more serious diagnosis or a kidney stone that will require intervention; however the investigators maintain that clinical criteria, point of care ultrasound and plain radiography (when appropriate), will provide a more comparatively effective and safer approach by appropriately limiting imaging.
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT01352676
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Study type
- Observational
- Phase
- Not listed
- Enrollment
- 635 participants
Conditions and interventions
Conditions
Interventions
Not listed
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- 18 Years and older
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Healthy volunteers not accepted
This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.
Study timeline
- Start date
- Apr 30, 2011
- Primary completion
- Feb 28, 2014
- Completion
- Feb 28, 2014
- Last update posted
- Mar 5, 2020
2011 – 2014
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 2
- U.S. states
- 1
- U.S. cities
- 2
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shoreline Medical Center | Guilford | Connecticut | 06437 | — |
| Yale University, Emergency Department | New Haven | Connecticut | 06519 | — |
Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.
About this trial record page
- What this page shows
- Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT01352676, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
- What this page does not do
- No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
- Where the data comes from
- Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
- Last refresh
- Last update posted Mar 5, 2020 · Synced Sep 7, 2026
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Open the official record
The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT01352676 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.