Objective To investigate the techniques and clinical applications of multislice helical computed tomography （CT） colono- graphy in colonic lesions. Methods Fifty-nine patients with malignant lesions of colon underwent volume scanning using multislice helical CT. Four types of reconstruction including CT virtual colonoscopy （CTVC）

shaded surface display （SSD）

Raysum

and mu- ltiple planar reconstruction （MPR） were used for image post-processing. The results were compared with those of colonos- copy and pathology. Results Multislice helical CT colonography detected 54 colorectal carcinomas

4 adenomas with focal carcinoma

1 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma （NHL）. The lesions’ number

size

location

morphology

stricture of intestinal cavity

infiltration

and metastasis were shown satisfactorily by multislice helical CT colonography. Whole colon could be shown in all patients. CT colonography displayed 4 synchronous colonic tumors

1 ascending colon carcinoma combined with left renal carcinoma among 54 patients with colonic carcinomas. The accuracy of location of CT colonography was 100%. There were 9 cases that CT showed the tumor location was different from the finding of conventional colonoscopy

while all of the CT location were proven exact by operation. CT colonography also displayed the infiltration of serous layer and fatty tissue in 45 cases; 21 cases matched the pathological results in all the 24 cases of suspicious lymph node metastasis

the sensitivity was 87.5%

the specificity was 90.6%; 9 cases hepatic metastasis

2 ovarian metastasis

and 1 double adrenal gland metastasis. Conclusions Multislice helical CT colonography is effective in preoperative diagnosis

location

stage

and making treatment plan of colorectal carcinoma. It can display the portion not seen during colonoscopy and may have an adjunctive role.