Abdominal multi-detector row CT: effectiveness of determining contrast medium dose on basis of body surface area

To investigate the validity of determining the contrast medium dose based on body surface area (BSA) for the abdominal contrast-enhanced multi-detector row CT comparing with determining based on body weight (BW).

Institutional review committee approval was obtained. In this retrospective study, 191 patients those underwent abdominal contrast-enhanced multi-detector row CT were enrolled. All patients received 96 mL of 320 mg I/mL contrast medium at the rate of 3.2 mL. The iodine dose required to enhance 1 HU of the aorta at the arterial phase and that of liver parenchyma at portal venous phase per BSA were calculated (EUBSA) and evaluated the relationship with BSA. Those per BW were also calculated (EUBW) and evaluated. Estimated enhancement values (EEVs) of the aorta and liver parenchyma with two protocols for dose decision based on BSA and BW were calculated and patient-to-patient variability was compared between two protocols using the Levene test.

The mean of EUBSA and EUBW were 0.0621 g I/m2/HU and 0.00178 g I/kg/HU for the aorta, and 0.342 g I/m2/HU and 0.00978 g I/kg/HU for the liver parenchyma, respectively. In the aortic enhancement, EUBSA was almost constant regardless of BSA, and the mean absolute deviation of the EEV with the BSA protocol was significantly lower than that with the BW protocol (P<.001), although there was no significant difference between two protocols in the hepatic parenchymal enhancement (P=.92).

For the aortic enhancement, determining the contrast medium dose based on BSA was considered to improve patient-to-patient enhancement variability.