Table 1 Dedicated CT angiography protocol for thoracic aortic pathology
From: Imaging of the aortic root on high-pitch non-gated and ECG-gated CT: awareness is the key!
Thoracic aorta CTA protocol at our institute | |
|---|---|
Scan range | Full chest coverage from the thoracic outlet through the lung base |
Contrast phases | 1. Non-contrast high-pitch non-ECG-gated chest (pitch factor > 3) 2. Contrast-enhanced ECG-gated chest |
ECG gating | Prospective with automatic single-phase selection based on the HR (75% for low HR and 40% for high HR) |
Radiation exposure | kV automatically adjusted from the topogram otherwise adjusted based on patient size 120 (BMI > 30), 100 (BMI 20–30), 80 (BMI < 20) mA automatically adjusted from the topogram |
Contrast | Iopamidol 370 mg/mL (Bracco Diagnostic, Princeton, NJ, USA) |
Contrast dose | 100 mL |
Injection rate | 4 cc/s |
Slice thickness | 3.0 mm thickness with 3.0 mm interval in axial, coronal, and sagittal planes 1 mm thickness with 0.8 mm interval for 3D postprocessing and double-oblique measurements |