Improving pulmonary perfusion assessment by dynamic contrast-enhanced computed tomography in an experimental lung injury model

Pulmonary perfusion has been poorly characterized in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Optimizing protocols to measure pulmonary blood flow (PBF) via dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) computed tomography (CT) could improve understanding of how ARDS alters pulmonary perfusion. In this study, comparative evaluations of injection protocols and tracer-kinetic analysis models were performed based on DCE-CT data measured in ventilated pigs with and without lung injury. Ten Yorkshire pigs (five with lung injury, five healthy) were anesthetized, intubated, and mechanically ventilated; lung injury was induced by bronchial hydrochloric acid instilla-tion. Each DCE-CT scan was obtained during a 30-s end-expiratory breath-hold. Reproducibility of PBF measurements was evaluated in three pigs. In eight pigs, undiluted and diluted Isovue-370 were separately injected to evaluate the effect of contrast viscosity on estimated PBF values. PBF was estimated with the peak-enhancement and the steepest-slope approach. Total-lung PBF was esti-mated in two healthy pigs to compare with cardiac output measured invasively by thermodilution in the pulmonary artery. Repeated measurements in the same animals yielded a good reproducibility of computed PBF maps. Injecting diluted isovue-370 resulted in smaller contrast-time curves in the pulmonary artery (P < 0.01) and vein (P < 0.01) without substantially diminishing peak signal inten-sity (P = 0.46 in the pulmonary artery) compared with the pure contrast agent since its viscosity is closer to that of blood. As com-pared with the peak-enhancement model, PBF values estimated by the steepest-slope model with diluted contrast were much closer to the cardiac output (R2= 0.82) as compared with the peak-enhancement model. DCE-CT using the steepest-slope model and diluted contrast agent provided reliable quantitative estimates of PBF.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Dynamic contrast-enhanced CT using a lower-viscosity contrast agent in combination with tracer-kinetic analysis by the steepest-slope model improves pulmonary blood flow measurements and assessment of regional distributions of lung perfusion.