Comparison of conventional and CO2 quantitative angiography: fiz or fizzle?

摘要

Typically, quantitation of 2D angiographic data has been limited to assessment of luminal edges from a single or, at most, two views. Use of densitometric image information, which can give data more closely related to the 3D geometry of the vessel, has been largely ignored because of imaging problems associated with conventional contrast agents. Recently, in phantom studies, we have demonstrated that the use of CO2 as an angiographic contrast agent may eliminate many of the obstacles previously limiting the use of densitometric approaches to quantitating 2D angiograms. This may allow us to provide an evaluation more closely related to the 3D geometry of the vasculature of interest. In this paper, we discuss our approach to CO2 angiography and provide illustrative angiographic studies demonstrating the potential breakthrough CO2 angiography may provide in extracting 3D information from 2D data sets.