[Carbon dioxide as an alternative contrast medium in peripheral angiography]

A closed gas pressure pistol was used in 50 patient CO2 angiography as a supplementary method to conventional injection with liquid contrast medium. These were diagnostic pelvis-leg angiographies (n = 36), therapeutic angiographies (n = 8), haemodialysis fistulas (n = 3), suspected stenosis of a renal transplant artery (n = 1) and suspected renal artery stenosis (n = 1). 246 renal angiography series were performed with CO2. Dosages varied in accordance with the imaged vascular area between 10 ccm;(shunt imaging) and up to 100 cm3 (pelvis-leg angiography), at pressures between 400 mbar in case of haemodialysis fistulas up to 2000 mbar in the pelvis-leg area. Short-term feeling of fullness and even nausea were accompanying symptoms in 4 patients. The image quality was slightly inferior to that of conventional contrast medium images due to an elevated signal-to-noise ratio. Injector-monitored CO2 angiographies enabled imaging of the distal aorta or of peripheral vascular sections, imaging of the upper extremity and presentation of kidney transplants in patients with a relative or absolute contraindication to iodised contrast media.