Evaluation of the 3D-CTA imaging techniques in the diagnosis of intracranial aneurysms

Objective: To evaluate the clinical value of five imaging techniques of 3D-CTA, including multiplanar reformation(MPR),maximum intensity projection(MIP),shaded surface display(SSD), volume rendering(VR) and vitual endoscopy(VE) in the diagnosis of intracranial aneurysms. Methods: 103 cases who were suspected to be intracranial aneurysms were scanned by CT and then processed by the above five imaging techniques. Results: (1) Results of operation and 3D-DSA showed that 95 patients were identified with 109 intracranial aneurysms. The other 8 patients were not detected any aneurysms. 93 patients were identified with 106 aneurysms by CTA, and 3 aneurysms in 2 patients were leaked out by CTA;(2)VR was found superior to SSD and MIP in the detection of small intracranial aneurysms.The detection rate had significantly difference among the three methods(χ\+2=13.569, P0.005); (3) The sensitivity of detecting aneurysms in original image, MPR, SSD, MIP and VR was 52.3%, 56.9%, 84.4%, 90.8% and 97.2% respectively; (4) The sensitivity of detecting calcified aneurysms in Original image, MPR, MIP and VE was 64.7%, 76.5%, 82.4% and 88.2% respectively; (5) Application of MIP could display the morphological characteristics of aneurysm and its relationship with adjacent tissue clearly. Conclusion: 3D-CTA techniques such as VR、MIP and VE have their own predominant role and could complement each other.