Personalized Protocol Contrast-Dosing Software Increases Diagnostic Quality CT

New pulmonary angiography (PA) software enables increased diagnostic quality studies by fitting into the established computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) workflow and making consistent administration of personalized dosing practical.

Medrad (Warrendale, PA, USA) presented Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) attendees hands-on demonstrations of personalized-protocol software that individualizes CTPA contrast dosing, and has proven to increase the percentage of diagnostic-quality studies to rule out pulmonary embolism (PE) when compared to the institution's standard protocol (at a slightly higher contrast dose than standard protocol, 80 mL)--potentially obviating the need to rescan the patient. Diagnosis with a high level of certainty is critical to the safety of patients with suspected PE, yet can be inhibited by imaging complexities associated with these studies. PE, a blockage of the pulmonary artery or one of its branches due to a blood clot or other thrombus, results in as many deaths per year, most of which occur in the first few hours.

The only contrast-dosing solution of its kind, the clinically validated P3T algorithm customizes each patient's contrast protocol based on technologists' touch-screen responses to unique clinical concerns, study requirements, and the scanning equipment used. "Achieving a diagnostic CT image for pulmonary embolism, without limitations, helps the hospital and emergency department in a number of important ways--with efficiency, patient care, and cost savings,” said Joan Lacomis MD, clinical professor radiology, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (PA, USA).

Albany Medical Center Researchers (NY, USA) concluded that suboptimal emergency department CTPA interpretations to rule out PE could substantially affect healthcare resource utilization and increase healthcare costs. Thirty percent of their CTPA studies showed suboptimal results, and these patients were subjected to additional imaging studies and/or received medical therapy. In some cases, patients were admitted to the hospital for further PE diagnosis considerations. None of the additional treatments or imaging modalities yielded a diagnosis of PE.

"We're enabling increased diagnostic-quality studies at a point when timely and accurate diagnosis is critical,” remarked Anthony Cinalli, executive director of Medrad radiology. "The software makes applying the science of personalizing patient dose practical at the point of care, and offers the potential to significantly impact healthcare utilization.”

In addition to quality improvements, the software offers flexibility and efficiency in administering personalized contrast dose for CT angiography for multiple regions of the cardiopulmonary vasculature, particularly when operating higher-speed scanners. The P3T line also includes cardiac and abdominal CT software versions that automate each patient's optimal contrast dose for studies addressing these areas of the anatomy.

The Radiology Society of North America annual meeting was held November 28-December 2, 2010, in Chicago, IL, USA.

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