Dual energy bone removal CT angiography for the diagnosis of intracranial internal carotid artery aneurysms: comparison with digital subtraction angiography
Abstract：Objective: To evaluate the clinical value of dual energy bone removal CT angiography(DE-CTA) for the diagnosis of intracranial internal carotid artery aneurysms. Materials and Methods: Twenty-four patients underwent DE-CTA and DSA between Jun. 2008 and Dec. 2008. Image post-processing of DE-CTA and routine CTA was performed using the dedicated software. Two well-experienced radiologists evaluated image quality of DE-CTA and presence of aneurysms, number, aneurysm neck and maximal dimension were recorded. Comparable study was performed with DSA, the gold standard. Results: Four vessels were non-evaluable because of occlusion(n=2) and poor image quality resulting from imperfect delayed time(n=2); while the remaining 44 vessels had evaluable image quality. With DSA as the reference of standard, routine CTA and DE-CTA detected 23 and 26 aneurysms, respectively, corresponding to sensitivities of 88.5% and 100%. Mean and maximal diameter of aneurysm neck were (3.5±1.3)mm and (6.7±5.1)mm, with a good correlation with DSA[aneurysm neck, (3.4±1.3)mm; maximal diameter, (6.9±5.2)mm]; (r=0.565, P=0.015; r=0.979, P=0.000). Conclusions: DE-CTA can remove bone in the skull base and visualize the intracranial internal carotid artery with a high diagnostic sensitivity for detection of intracranial aneurysms of internal carotid artery. The technique of DE-CTA should be widely used in the routine clinical practice.
2009, Vol. 20 
