Main Bolus Research Articles

Contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography: dose the test dose bolus represent the main dose bolus accurately?

ObjectiveTo determine whether the time-intensity curves acquired by test and main dose contrast injections for MR angiography are similar.Materials and MethodsIn 11 patients, repeated contrast-enhanced 2D-turbo-FLASH scans with 1-sec interval were obtained. Both test and main dose time-intensity curves were acquired from the abdominal aorta, and the parameters of time-intensity curves for the test and main boluses were compared. The parameters used were arterial and venous enhancement times, arterial peak enhancement time, arteriovenous circulation time, enhancement duration and enhancement expansion ratio.ResultsBetween the main and test boluses, arterial and venous enhancement times and arteriovenous circulation time showed statistically significant correlation (p < 0.01), with correlation coefficients of 0.95, 0.92 and 0.98 respectively. Although the enhancement duration was definitely greater than infusion time, reasonable measurement of the end enhancement point in the main bolus was impossible.ConclusionOnly arterial and venous enhancement times and arteriovenous circulation time of the main bolus could be predicted from the test-bolus results. The use of these reliable parameters would lead to improvements in the scan timing method for MR angiography.

Opacification of the urinary tract in portal venous spiral CT without delayed scans.

In portal venous spiral CT there is no visible renal contrast excretion within the usual period of scanning. To opacify collecting systems additional delayed scanning is required. We administered an extra pre-dose of contrast medium before the main portal venous bolus in order to opacify the urinary tract and studied its effects on liver attenuation. In 32 patients examined first by non-contrast spiral CT 20 ml of a non-ionic IV CM were injected. Five minutes later, orientating cuts in the liver and along the urinary tract were obtained. Immediately thereafter, a 120-ml bolus was administered at 3 ml/s for portal venous phase helical CT (60-s delay craniocaudad). The quality of renal excretion was graded visually (excellent, fair, poor, none). Hepatic attenuation measurements were performed at comparable regions of interest. In all patients 20 ml CM opacified the renal pelvis after 5 min. Depiction of the ureters was excellent in 14, fair in 11 and poor or none in 7 cases. There was little effect on mean hepatic attenuation by the 20-ml pre-bolus after 5 min: mean enhancement 2.3 HU (range -0.6 to 7.8 HU). Mean hepatic enhancement after the 120-ml portal venous bolus ranged between 23.6 and 74.1 HU (mean 51.5 HU). When opacification of the urinary tract is necessary, pre-administration of a 20-ml bolus 5 min before portal venous scanning may save an extra delayed spiral. The effects on hepatic enhancement are negligible.