Basic studies on the usefulness of post-operative three-dimensional CT angiography in cases with cerebral aneurysms

Since the establishment of neurosurgical service in our hospital in May 1999, three-dimensional CT angiography (3D-CTA) has been employed for the purpose of post-operative evaluation following neck clipping of cerebral aneurysms as well as pre-operative surgical simulation. The authors performed basic studies on reduction of artifacts from titanium and metal clips on images of 3D-CTA, thus making us easily understand the relationship between clips and surrounding arterial structures. The results of our study showed that there was little influence from titanium clips on 3D-CTA images, indicating that post-operative evaluation with 3D-CTA is feasible. On the other hand, precise examination with only 3D-CTA was difficult incases with metal clips because of significant artifacts noted around these clips. In such cases, subtraction image processing seems to be promising. (author)