An augmented patient-specific approach to administration of contrast agent for CT renal angiography

This hybrid retrospective and prospective study performed on 200 consecu¬tive patients undergoing renal CTA, investigates the opacification of renal vasculature, radiation dose, and reader confidence. 100 patients were assigned retrospectively to protocol A and the other 100 were allocated prospectively to protocol B. Both protocols implemented a contrast material and saline flow rate of 4.5 mL/sec. Protocol A utilized a 100 mL of low-osmolar nonionic IV contrast material (Ioversol 350 mg I/mL) while protocol B employed a patient-tailored contrast media formula using iso-osmolar non-ionic (Iodixanol 320 mg I/mL). Arterial opacification in the abdominal aorta and in the bilateral main proxi¬mal renal arteries demonstrated no statistical significance (p>0.05). Only the main dis¬tal renal artery of the left kidney in protocol B was statistically significant (p