Reducing amount of contrast agent after compression of right brachial artery using a blood pressure cuff in computed tomography cerebrovascular angiography

OBJECTIVE: To invastgate feasibility of low-dose contrast agent in cerebral computed tomography angiography (CTA) to alleviate side effects. METHOD: Siemens' Somatom Definition AS+CT scanner, Heine's blood pressure monitor G7-M237 (BP cuff) and Ultravist contrast agent (370 mg Iodine/ml) are used. CTA is acquired using following scan parameters including slice thickness of 1mm, image acquisition parameters of 128x0.6 mm, pitch size of 0.8 mm, 175 effective mAs, 120 kVp tube voltage, scan delay time of 3 seconds, and the scan time of 4 seconds. This study is conducted by securing the IV route in the left antecubital vein before injection of contrast agent, wrapping BP cuff around the branchial artery of the opposite right arm after setting the pressure to 200 mmHg. Then, the injection rate of the contrast agent is fixed at 4.5 cc/sec and contrast agent was injected in three different amounts (70, 80, and 100 cc). Bp cuff is released from this moment when HU value reachs 100. RESULT: In this study, the mean HU values measured from common carotid artery are 412.45 +/- 5.89 when injecting 80cc contrast agent and using BP cuff and 399.64 +/- 5.51 when injecting 100 cc contrast agenet and not using BP cuff, respectively. In middle cerebral artery M1, the mean HU values are 325.23 +/- 38.29 when injecting 80cc contrast agent and using BP cuff and 325.00 +/- 30.63 when injecting 100cc contrast agent blood and not using pressure cuff, respectively. Difference of mean HU values is not statistically significant (p > 0.05) with and without using BP cuff. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that reducing amount of contrast agent is possible when the right brachial artery is compressed using BP cuff. Study results indicate that reducing 20% injection of contrast agent in CT cerebrovascular angiography can still yield comparable imaging results with conventional contrast angent usage, which implies that less side effects are expected with a contrast agent injection. Thus, this study can serve as a reference for potential reducing side effect during CT cerebrovascular angiography.