Detection of Aneurysms in Patients with Spontaneous Subarachnoid Hemorrhage: A Comparison of Three-dimensional Computed Tomographic Angiography and Conventional Angiography

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: Three-dimensional computed tomographic angiography(3D-CTA) is recently developed diagnostic imaging modality. We have studied this noninvasive method for possible role in replacing conventional angiography(CA) in the detection of aneurysms of the circle of Willis in patients with subarachnoid hemorrahge(SAH). METHODS: We studied retrospectively, the 100 patients with SAH or unruptured aneurysms admitted to our hospital from October 1997 to December 1998. Among there, 85 patients underwent CTA, 82 patients underwent CA and 67 patients underwent both of CTA and CA. 3D-CTA was obtained using maximum intensity projection(MIP) and shaded-surface display(SSD) reconstruction. RESULTS: Total 107 aneurysms were detected in 92 patients, and 64 aneurysms were detected in 67 patients underwent both CTA and CA. In five cases of those 67 cases, aneurysms were detected by CA but not by 3D-CTA. The detection rate of aneurysms(91.8%) and the detection rate of parent artery in cases of anterior communicating artery aneurysms(86.9%) with total 3D-CTA were relatively compatible with that of CA. But 3D-CTA was not enough in detection of posterior communicating artery aneurysms, internal carotid artery aneurysms as well as small sized aneurysm(<3mm). Conclusion: We consider CTA is valuable in as a screening test for cerebral aneurysm and follow-up test. And it is also valuable in early surgery for patients with aneurysmal rebleeding because of simple, quick, non-invasive method.