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Gadolinium-enhanced multidetector CT angiography of the thoracoabdominal aorta
Musturay Karcaaltincaba1, W Dennis Foley
1Department of Radiology, Medical College of Wisconsin, 9200 W. Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53226, USA.
Journal of Computer Assisted Tomography
|December 19, 2002
Insights
A 93-year-old patient
Area of Science:
- Radiology
- Cardiovascular Imaging
- Medical Diagnostics
Background:
- Aortic dissection is a life-threatening condition requiring prompt diagnosis.
- Assessing aortic pathology in elderly patients with comorbidities presents diagnostic challenges.
Observation:
- A 93-year-old patient with a pacemaker and renal failure presented with back pain.
- Gadolinium-enhanced thoracoabdominal multidetector CT angiography was performed.
Findings:
- Uniform aortic enhancement of 140 HU was achieved.
- This enhancement level was sufficient to exclude aortic dissection.
- An unruptured infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm was identified.
Implications:
- Multidetector CT angiography with adequate enhancement can reliably rule out aortic dissection.
- This imaging technique is valuable for diagnosing aortic aneurysms in complex patient populations.
- Optimizing contrast enhancement is crucial for accurate CT angiography interpretation.
Abstract:
A 93-year-old patient with a cardiac pacemaker and biochemical renal failure presented with back pain suspicious for dissection. We performed gadolinium-enhanced thoracoabdominal multidetector CT angiography using eight-channel multidetector CT. Uniform aortic enhancement of 140 HU was sufficient to exclude aortic dissection and defined an unruptured infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm.