Quantitative liver tumor blood volume measurements by a C-arm CT post-processing software before and after hepatic arterial embolization therapy: comparison with MDCT perfusion

Abstract

C-arm CT imaging was performed on a flat-detector angiographic system (Ar- tis Zee, Siemens Healthcare) according to the injection and acquisition proto- col shown in Fig. 1. The C-arm CT BV acquisition consists of two runs: an ini- tial rotation (mask scan) followed by a second rotation after contrast medium injection (fill scan). The following pa- rameters were used in data acquisition: acquisition time approximately 5 s, 90 kV, 616×480 matrix, projection on 30×40 cm flat panel, 200° total angle, 0.8°/frame, 248 frames total, detector entrance dose 0.36 µGy/frame. Con- trast injection starts immediately after the mask run and is maintained until the end of the fill run. The C-arm ro- tates back, which takes another 5-6 s, then the fill run starts. By then the contrast has been distributed through the arteries and the parenchyma has reached a homogeneous enhancement. A total volume of 36 mL of contrast