We report CT findings of 4 patients who experienced sudden cardiac arrest. The CT features documented in our cases include dense opacification of the right heart and major systemic veins, venous layering of contrast material and blood, densely opacified parenchyma in the right hepatic lobe, decreased enhancement of the abdominal organ, dense pulmonary artery, contrast pooling in dependent lungs, and contrast stasis in pulmonary veins. Familiarity with characteristic CT findings of impending cardiac arrest is essential for immediate cardiopulmonary resuscitation. A CT scan with contrast enhancement is widely used for evaluation of a broad spectrum of thoracic and abdominal conditions. Therefore, as the use of CT in the evaluation of hemodynamically unstable patients increases, the opportunity to witness the CT features of impending cardiac arrest also increases at the time of scanning. Knowledge of the characteristic CT features of impending cardiac arrest can have immediate and important survival implications for the patients. We describe the spectrum of emergent CT findings of impending cardiac arrest in 4 patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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