Reducing misregistration of mask image in hepatic DSA.

When performing hepatic digital subtraction angiography, misregistration of the mask image can cause artifacts that obscure pathology. For this article, researchers analyzed the breath expiration times of 59 patients and found that expiration times ranged from 1.8 seconds to 6 seconds. Thirty DSA series were obtained taking into account the patient's breath expiration time, and 35 series were obtained without taking the expiration time into consideration. Artifacts were detected in 20% of the DSA series where expiration time was taken into consideration and in 42.9% of series where it was not (p < 0.05). The research showed that misregistration of the mask image during hepatic DSA can be reduced by starting the exposure at the end of breath expiration.