Rationale and objectives: To evaluate the appearance of the vessel lumen after implantation of different vascular stents with the use of a computed tomographic (CT) angiography model.
Methods: A vascular phantom was studied with helical CT and different slice thicknesses (2 and 3 mm) and pitch values (1.0, 1.5, and 2.0). Original transverse CT images and coronal reformations were evaluated. Fourteen different stents were analyzed with regard to changes in the stent lumen (attenuation values, noise, and artificial lumen narrowing).
Results: Some stents caused artifacts resulting in potential errors during evaluation of their patency. Assessment of the lumen was impaired in two stents (Strecker tantalum and Passager). Increased attenuation values were measured in all stents (increase of 8%-145%). The degree of artificial lumen narrowing was 4.4% to 77.8%.
Conclusions: In most stents, reliable evaluation of the stent lumen seems possible. However, knowledge of the artifacts caused by different stent types is useful for the assessment of stent patency with CT angiography.