Australia & New Zealand Society of Vascular Surgeons

The advent of multislice CT (CT multi-detector row computerized tomography, or MDCT)a few short years ago has revolutionized the ability to visualise blood vessels, and indeed most of the field of computerized tomography. This has resulted from a combination of the features of MDCT, namely the speed of scanning and consequent reduction in artifacts, greater scan lengths and the acquisition of simultaneous multiple slices in continuous spiral fashion, resulting effectively in a “volume” of information. Affording the ability not only to image more rapidly, thereby permitting faster acquisitions, but also delivering better visualisation of vascular structures in various phases of opacification (unenhanced, arterial, venous and delayed), MDCT also allows prospective or retrospective reconstruction into finer slices. This in turn facilitates isotropic imaging (reconstructions in any plane with the same resolution as the original axial images), 3-D surface and volume rendered imaging as well as maximum intensity projection reconstructions (MIP images). At the same time as visualizing blood vessels surrounding organs can also be imaged, yielding additional information. Furthermore, various software programmes allow accurate vessel measurement and surgical planning. The role of the MDCT in vascular imaging is as diverse as aortic aneurysm assessment, surgical planning and post surgical assessment, visualization of vascular dissections, peripheral vascular angiography, carotid and cerebral imaging, visceral angiography, CT pulmonary angiography and venous studies. With the advent of improved scanners and softwares further advances are expected within a relatively short time frame.