ROTATIONAL DIGITAL SUBTRACTION CAROTID ANGIOGRAPHY - TECHNIQUE AND COMPARISON WITH STATIC DIGITAL SUBTRACTION ANGIOGRAPHY

Recent advances in angiography equipment have allowed the development of rotational digital subtraction carotid angiography, We give the fir st description of this technique applied to the extracranial carotid c irculation, using the Phillips Integris V3000 release 11, Forty-three patients undergoing conventional digital subtraction angiography were compared with 63 patients who had rotational digital subtraction angio graphy for examination of the extracranial carotid circulation. The pa rameters compared were: total procedure time, volume of contrast injec tion, number of contrast injections, total data acquisition time, imag e quality, radiation dose and patient comfort. There was a reduction i n the total procedure time, improvement in patient comfort, data acqui sition time and a reduction in the number of injections. Conventional DSA may underestimate stenoses in 65% of cases, There is no significan t change in the total volume of contrast injected. There is, however, an increase in the radiation dose during data acquisition.