Neurointervention.  2009 Feb;4(1):15-23.

Subtraction CT Angiography with Motion Correction for Detection of Intra- and Extra-cranial Vascular Lesions: Technical Considerations and Initial Experience

• Kim SJ
• Hong H
• Kim SM
• Kim HJ
• Lee JH
• Suh DC

Abstract

PURPOSE
Clinical implementation of subtraction computed tomographic angiography (CTA) is limited due to motion artifact and/or long processing time. We evaluated the utility of a motion-corrected subtraction CTA technique for visualization of intra- and extra-cranial vascular lesions.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Pre- and post-contrast CT images were obtained in the target region of 53 consecutive patients which were consisted of 36 patients with 53 lesions and 17 normal patients. The source images were transferred to a personal computer (PC) and were automatically post-processed within one minute using novel motion-corrected subtraction CTA. The image quality of subtraction and non-subtraction CTAs was compared in each lesion category and lesion location using 3-point scale and Chi square test.
RESULTS
The image quality of subtraction CTA was better than those from non-subtraction CTA (p<0.05) especially in the skull base lesions, such as carotid-cavernous fistulas, aneurysms in the cavernous internal carotid artery (ICA), and steno-occlusive lesions of the distal ICA, and extracranial lesions such as facial arteriovenous fistulas.
CONCLUSION
The PC-based motion-corrected subtraction CTA technique allows fast generation of postprocessed images and can provide improved visualization of vascular anatomy and pathologies adjacent to bone in the skull base and head and neck areas.

Keyword

Computed tomographic angiography; Subtraction CTA; Brain, vascular abnormality

MeSH Terms

Aneurysm
Angiography*
Arteriovenous Fistula
Artifacts
Carotid Artery, Internal
Fistula
Head
Humans
Microcomputers
Neck
Pathology
Skull Base