CTA in the detection and quantification of vertebral artery pathologies: a correlation with color Doppler sonography

We evaluated the feasibility of multidetector CT angiography (MDCTA) in the examination of vertebral artery (VA) pathologies and correlated the results with those of color Doppler sonography (CDS).

In this retrospective cohort analysis, we identified 65 patients with suspected cerebrovascular disease, who underwent MDCTA and CDS of the supraaortic vessels within a maximum period of 1 month. We evaluated the feasibility and image quality of MDCTA in this indication, compared the value of reformatted images and axial source images in the grading of stenoses and correlated these results with those of CDS.

The image quality of the MDCTA examination was classified as good in 64 patients (98.5%) and as moderate in 1 patient (1.5%). Axial source images and reformatted images agreed perfectly in terms of stenosis detection and grading as well as the detection of hypoplastic VAs (kappa = 1). The correlation between MDCTA and CDS was moderate (kappa = 0.56) in terms of stenosis detection and quantification and poor (kappa = 0.35) in terms of detection of hypoplasia of the VA.

MDCTA is a feasible method for the evaluation of VA pathologies providing a good image quality. Image reformatting does not add any diagnostic value to the interpretation of axial source images. The correlation between MDCTA and CDS is only moderate, reflecting the clinically important limitations of CDS in this indication.