Comparison of Aneurysmal Clip-induced Artifacts in 64- and 16-row Multislice Computed Tomography Angiograms / 대한뇌혈관외과학회지

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to compare titanium and cobalt alloy clip induced artifacts in 16- and 64-row multislice computed tomography angiograms. METHODS: A total of 40 intracranial aneurysms in 37 patients treated using titanium or cobalt-alloy clips were enrolled in this study. Computed tomography angiography (CTA) was performed using a 16-row (12 aneurysms; cobalt-alloy clips in 8 and titanium clips in 4) or 64-row (28 aneurysms; cobalt-alloy clips in 14 and titanium clips in 14) multislice CT machine after surgical clipping. Clip-induced artifacts were divided into white and black components, and artifact sizes were quantified by measuring the areas of these components. RESULTS: The titanium clips (634.9 +/- 308.44 mm2) produced smaller artifacts than cobalt alloy clips (2,797.4 +/- 3,121.98 mm2) by CTA (p=0.006), but the mean size of titanium clip induced artifacts was smaller for 64-row (544.0 +/- 68.77 mm2) than for 16-row (953.3 +/- 279.95 mm2) multislice CTA (p=0.026). On the other hand, cobalt alloy clip related artifacts were similarly sized (64-row, 2,191.5 +/- 2,072.86 mm2 versus 16-row, 3,857.6 +/- 4,386.56 mm2, p=0.246). CONCLUSION: Titanium clips produce smaller artifacts than cobalt-alloy clips and 64-row multislice CTA reduced titanium clip-induced artifacts as compared with 16-row multislice CTA. However, cobalt-alloy clip artifacts were huge and were not reduced by the higher row CTA unit.