Book excerpt: Section I:Principles and challenges of MDCT / Introduction-I.1.MDCT:Technical principles and future trends-I.2.Contrast medium administration and scan timing for MDCT Section II:Abdominal imaging / Introduction-II.1.MDCT:Secondary malignancies and benign liver lesions-II.2.Primary liver malignancies-II.3.MDCT of the pancreas-II.4.Abdominal imaging:Use of high concentration contrast media Section III:Cardiac and vascular imaging / Introduction-III.1.Use of high concentration contrast media in CT angiography:Principles and rationale-III.2.Cardiac and vascular imaging:Cardiology indications-III.3.Aorta, peripheral and renal vessels-III.4.MDCT for diagnosis of pulmonary embolism: Have we reached our goal? Section IV:Future prospects in MDCT imaging / Introduction-IV.1.Interventional MDCT-IV.2.Functional CT imaging in stroke and oncology-IV.3.From acquisition to report: managing the information overload-IV.4.Recent update on contrast media safety