Abstract:
Clear visualisation of the vertebral arteries is of substantial clinical importance, yet optimisation of contrast administration has not been developed in tandem with recent technological developments in computed tomography (CT). The current work involving 202 patients' compares the value of a tailored contrast regiment based on patient dynamics and a craniocaudal scan acquisition, with the routine contrast protocol with a caudocranial scan. Attenuation characteristics within 20 arteries were calculated and diagnostic efficacy measured using DBM receiver operating characteristic (ROC) methods. The results demonstrated that the tailored regimen resulted in significantly higher attenuation values (p0.01) and ROC Az values (p=0.002), along with better inter-observer agreement compared with the routine protocol and contrast volume was reduced by almost 50percent. The data demonstrate that patient-specific strategies can result in significant diagnostic benefit. © 2013 SPIE.