[Method of injection of contrast medium for brain perfusion CT]

Perfusion computed tomography (CT) has great value for detecting stroke and evaluating blood flow in the brain. With perfusion CT, it is possible to obtain two absolute values, cerebral blood flow (CBF) (ml/min/100g) and cerebral blood volume (CBV) (%). In using this examination, the main problem is the method of iodine injection. The maximum slope of time-attenuation curve in organs must be reached before the peak enhancement time of the sagittal sinus. To solve this problem, we used a new method in which total injection volume is 30ml, and the rate of injection is 9ml/sec. The data acquisition time is one second for each scan, and the time interval is one second, for 20 scans in total. With this method, we can obtain reliable information on blood flow in the damaged brain. The most common examination used for the detection of brain blood flow is single-phased dynamic CT with Xe inhalation. However, the Xe inhalant examination is difficult to use in the routine clinical setting. Perfusion CT will be more useful for the detection of brain blood flow.