Development of rotational digital angiography and new cone-beam 3D image: clinical value in vascular lesions

Despite the rapid improvement of new imaging modalities such as CT, MRI and echography techniques, angiography still plays the role of gold standard for the diagnosis of vascular lesions. The main reason for this dependence on angiography is its superiority in the S/N ratio and spatial resolution. However, the essential problem remained in angiography, even in modern DSA, is that, after a single injection of contrast medium, imaging is done from only one or two projections. Serial filming by rotating method of the X-ray unit around the longitudinal axis of the target organ will theoretically solve the above problem. This method has been documented at times for cerebral angiography since the report of Cornelis et al. [1], while the rotational digital X-ray system sufficient to various human organs has been described by few authors [2,3]. The aim of this paper is to discuss the value of the new system from the clinical view.