Right arm injection of contrast medium reduces venous artifacts in head and neck multislice spiral computed tomography angiography

OBJECTIVE: We tested whether injection of contrast medium via right or left arm would affect venous artifacts on head and neck multislice spiral computed tomography (CT) angiography.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: 326 patients were enrolled. Each patient was injected with 10 ml of contrast medium at 5 ml/sec. Time of peak contrast value plus an additional 1 sec was defined as delay time. Another 40 ml of contrast medium were injected with the same injection speed. The scanning area ranged from the aortic arch to the top of the head. Left and right forearms were used for intravenous injections of contrast medium in, respectively, 151 and 175 patients. Comparative analyses of image quality included determining contrast medium residues remaining in the superior vena cava, brachiocephalic vein, or subclavian vein, and comparisons of quality of three-dimensional CT angiography.

RESULTS: In 75% of head and neck angiographies, the delay time of the common carotid artery ranged from 16 to 22 sec. In 60% of the images, the quality was graded as excellent, with the left arm injection resulting in delay time of > 23 sec and the right arm delay time of > 18 sec. The CT imaging quality after contrast injections via left or right arms was statistically significant (p < 0.05). The image quality after right arm injection was better than after left arm injection.

CONCLUSIONS: Intravenous injection of contrast medium via right arm reduces artifacts from contrast medium residues and improves the image quality of head and neck CT angiography.

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