Determination of contrast media administration to achieve a targeted contrast enhancement in computed tomography

Abstract

Abstract. Contrast enhancement is a key component of computed tomography (CT) imaging and offers opportunities for optimization. The design and optimization of techniques, however, require orchestration with the scan parameters and, further, a methodology to relate contrast enhancement and injection function. We used such a methodology to develop a method, the analytical inverse method, to predict the required injection function to achieve a desired contrast enhancement in a given organ by incorporation of a physiologically based compartmental model. The method was evaluated across 32 different target contrast enhancement functions for aorta, kidney, stomach, small intestine, and liver. The results exhibited that the analytical inverse method offers accurate performance with error in the range of 10% deviation between the predicted and desired organ enhancement curves. However, this method is incapable of predicting the injection function based on the liver enhancement. The findings of this study can be useful in optimizing contrast medium injection function as well as scan timing to provide more consistency in the way contrast-enhanced CT examinations are performed. To our knowledge, this work is one of the first attempts to predict the contrast material injection function for a desired organ enhancement curve.

The Effect of Contrast Material on Radiation Dose at CT: Part II. A Systematic Evaluation across 58 Patient Models

“…In part II of the study, the same population of 58 computational XCAT adult patient models was used (figure 3 in part I). To simulate contrast material perfusion in the XCAT phantoms, we used the previously validated patient-specific physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) contrast material model described in part I of the study (21). Contrast medium injection for each phantom was simulated on the basis of patient-specific iodine concentrationtime results from our computational contrast medium propagation model for an intravenous injection protocol.…”

Reproducibility of Computed Tomography perfusion parameters in hepatic multicentre study in patients with colorectal cancer

“…Focussing on first-pass kinetics, we needed to extract from the vascular and tissue TCCs the contribution due to the first passage only. Some simulation studies show that the CA kinetics limited to the first passage is represented by a TCC decaying to the baseline, after its peak [29]. Moreover, it is known that when considering short CA bolus injections, the recirculation contributes to TCCs mainly after its peak is reached, in the aorta as well as in the abdominal vessels supplying the liver [30].…”