Method for injecting a contrast medium to generate prolonged uniform vascular enhancement
AssigneeB.H.B., L.C.
InventorsKyongtae T. Bae, Huy Q. Tran
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Abstract
A contrast medium injector for injecting a patient with contrast medium for a CT scan is programmed to provide an injection protocol that is a representation of an ideally defined exponential curve with an initial injection rate decaying at an exponential rate. This has been found to produce a uniform vascular enhancement for the scanning of a patient's blood vessels. The particular exponential decay coefficient which has been found to be optimal is directly proportional to the cardiac output divided by the patient's weight and is approximated at 0.01 for a typical human.
Claims16
A method for substantially maintaining a desired level of vascular enhancement in a patient substantially throughout a desired interval of an injection routine by intravascularly injecting a contrast agent, said method comprising the steps of:
- beginning the injection routine desired interval substantially at a preselected initial injection rate, and
- controllably changing the injection rate during the injection routine.
A method for substantially maintaining a desired level of vascular enhancement in a patient substantially throughout a desired interval of an injection routine by intravascularly injecting a contrast agent, said method comprising the steps of:
- beginning the injection routine desired interval at a preselected initial injection rate, and
- substantially continuously changing the injection rate as the routine continues.
A method for substantially maintaining a desired level of vascular enhancement in a patient substantially throughout a desired interval of an injection routine by intravascularly injecting a contrast agent, said method comprising the steps of:
- beginning the injection routine substantially at a preselected initial injection rate, and
- substantially continuously changing the injection rate at a rate calculated to be substantially dependent on a selected cardiac output per body weight typifying the patient.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.