Cerebral computed tomographic angiography scan delay in subarachnoid hemorrhage.

CONTEXT Computed tomographic angiography (CTA) is widely applied in the evaluation of cerebral vessels. Contrast enhancement in cerebral CTA without care or test bolus is not always sufficient for high-quality images. AIMS Evaluation of the possibilities of calculation of scan delay for cerebral CTA in case of subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), based on clinical data of a patient and to find out prognostic error of the model. SETTINGS AND DESIGN Prospective study in Neurosurgery and Radiology departments. MATERIALS AND METHODS Scan delay in 53 patients suffering an acute SAH was measured employing test bolus technique. Cerebral CTA was performed afterwards. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED SPSS for Windows v.10.1 software package was applied for dispersion analysis, including one-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov's test and Levene's Test of Equality of Error Variances. RESULTS A statistical model for the prediction of scan delay in SAH was developed. Cerebral CTA scan delay was dependent upon age, neurological status and impact of the latter factors together (P< 0.05). The determined mean square error of prognosis of scan delay of the developed model equals 3.3 sec. CONCLUSION Using our proposed model it is possible to estimate an optimal delay time for CTA in most patients with SAH with a determined error.