High contrast enhancement of the liver in CT by repeated doses of contrast medium.

A technique consisting of repeated injections of contrast medium has been used in 530 cases of upper abdominal CT studies for evaluation of hepatic and pancreatic disease. Out of 530 cases, 105 patients had hepatic lesions, 62 metastatic, 3 adenomas, 4 haemangiomas and 6 hepatomas. The remaining 30 patients had cystic lesions involving the liver. Using a repeat dose technique and rapid scanning, the accuracy rate ranged about 90%. Th authors feel that this technique should be employed routinely for evaluation of hepatic problems and that other techniques should be abandoned.

[Abdominal angio-CT: technique of injection and scanning (author's transl)]. / L'angio-TC degli organi addominali: tecnica di iniezione e scansione.

Angio-CT consists in a rapid bolus intravenous injection of contrast medium followed by serial sequential fast scanning to include the arterial and the venous phases. Injection of contrast medium of 50 cm3 are made 3 or 4 times for a total of 150 divided by 200 cm3 of contrast medium at an iodine concentration of 29 g/100 cm3. At the beginning, scans are intercalated with injections, until the total amount of contrast medium is reached. Thereafter, the scans are rapidly continued to cover the whole organ under study. The scanning during the vascular enhancement has considerably helped our diagnostic accuracy and has a made the drip-infusion technique out-moded.