Diagnostic accuracy of shuttle CT angiography (CTA) and helical CTA in the diagnosis of vasospasm.
| Publication Type | Academic Article |
| Authors | Smith N, Sweeney E, Gupta A, Patsalides A, Sanelli P, Ivanidze J |
| Journal | Clin Imaging |
| Volume | 81 |
| Pagination | 37-42 |
| Date Published | 09/21/2021 |
| ISSN | 1873-4499 |
| Keywords | Subarachnoid Hemorrhage, Vasospasm, Intracranial |
| Abstract | PURPOSE: To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of computed tomography angiography (CTA) acquired with shuttle technique (CTAs) and helical CTA (CTAh) for vasospasm, using digital subtraction angiography (DSA) obtained within 24 h as reference standard. METHODS: Thirty-six patients with suspected vasospasm in the setting of aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (ASAH, 30/36) or acute inflammatory/infectious conditions (6/36) who underwent CTAs (17/36) or CTAh (19/36) followed by DSA within 24 h were identified retrospectively. Presence of vasospasm in the proximal cerebral arterial segments was assessed qualitatively and semi-quantitatively on CTA and subsequent DSA. Sensitivity, specificity, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were calculated. Inter-rater variability was assessed using Cohen's kappa. RESULTS: On CTAs, 35% of patients had low and 65% had high vasospasm burden. On CTAh, 37% had low and 63% had high vasospasm burden. ROC analysis demonstrated an AUC of 0.87 for CTAs (95%CI 0.67-1.00, p = 0.015) and 0.88 for CTAh (0.72-1.00, p = 0.028). Cohen's kappa was 0.843 (95%CI 0.548-1.000). Thresholding with Youden's J index, CTAs had a sensitivity of 85.71% (95%CI 48.69 to 99.27) and specificity of 66.67% (35.42 to 87.94). CTAh had sensitivity of 100% (56.55 to 100.00) and specificity of 78.57% (52.41 to 92.43). CONCLUSION: CTAs and CTAh yielded similar sensitivity, specificity, and AUC values on ROC analysis for the detection of vasospasm using DSA as reference standard. Our findings suggest that CTAs is a promising alternative to CTAh especially in patients requiring serial imaging, given its potential advantages of decreased radiation exposure, contrast dose, and cost-effectiveness. |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.clinimag.2021.09.004 |
| PubMed ID | 34598002 |