Contrast injected, scan triggered, but where has contrast gone?

Abstract

Intra-arterial injections during CT scan examinations are a rare occurrence in day-to-day radiology practice but are of potential significance when they do occur. They render an imaging study non-diagnostic, and for imaging techniques like CT scan, expose patient to undue radiation dose. Equally disturbing for both patient and clinicians, including radiologists, is the need for repeat imaging. For certain emergency indications, such an event may yield erroneous results and severely hamper patient′s management. We report one such event that occurred in our cardiac CT scan section with the aim to raise awareness about such events among our colleagues.

Keywords

• arterial variation
• coronary ct angiography
• intra-arterial injection