Abdominal DSA with densitometric gating

Motion artifacts are the most important factors responsbile for suboptimal quality in digital subtraction angiography (DSA). In the abdomen, most artifacts are caused by the respiration. Positioning a densitometric window in the image set enables cyclic respiratory motions to be identified. Gated subtraction images were obtained by matching pre- and postcontrast images on the basis of these curves. DSA performed in sheep (intubated) and in humans (voluntary respiration) were compared. In both groups, the image quality was superior to that obtained with standard DSA techniques