Role of multi-slice CT angiography versus Doppler ultrasonography and conventional angiography in assessment of aorto-iliac arterial disease

The new clinical entity, known as aorto-iliac atherosclerosis obliterans or aorto-iliac occlusive disease (AIOD), is one of the most frequent clinical problems confronted by vascular surgeons today. Digital subtraction angiography is considered the gold standard technique in assessment of these arteries. However, the invasiveness of the procedure, and radiation exposure led to the need for less and non-invasive imaging techniques.ObjectiveThe aim of this study is to evaluate the MDCT angiography as a recent non invasive technique for investigating aorto-iliac arterial disease as compared to CCD and DSA.Materials and methodsThis study included 16 patients (12 males & 4 females) with an age range of 33–75 years. All of these patients underwent MDCT angiography and CCD. Only 13 patients underwent DSA. The arterial tree of the lower limbs was divided into 31 arterial segments. Each segment was evaluated and given a grade from 0 to 4 according to its appearance in the three modalities.ResultsThere was a 98.7% agreement between the findings of DSA and MDCT angiography. While agreement between DSA and CCD was 96.1%.ConclusionConsidering conventional angiography as the gold standard, MDCT angiography shows higher sensitivity (98.7%) than color coded Doppler ultrasonography (96.2%) in the assessment of aorto-iliac arterial disease.