Test bolus technique for detection of pulmonary emboli at 64-slice multidetector computed tomography angiography

Multidetector computed tomography angiography (MDCTA) has become the first-line imaging choice for assessment of patients with suspected acute pulmonary embolism (PE) due to its proven high sensitivity (82%-97%) and specificity (78%-96%) in the diagnosis of PE [1]. The automatic bolus tracking is the routinely performed method for imaging the pulmonary arteries with MDCTA [1,2] and was also used for pulmonary MDCTA at the study institution until 2008. Test bolus technique was subsequently used at the study institution for selective imaging of the pulmonary arterial system by using an optimized time delay between contrast administration and image acquisition. This study aimed to retrospectively assess the contrast enhancement and scan quality achieved by the test bolus technique and to determine the effectiveness of this method as a whole compared with that of the standard automatic bolus-tracking technique. (author)