Clinical Relevance of Retrograde Inferior Vena Cava or Hepatic Vein Opacification During Contrast-Enhanced CT

Abstract

Retrograde opacification of the inferior vena cava or hepatic veins on CT is a specific but insensitive sign of right-sided heart disease at low contrast injection rates, but the usefulness of this classic sign decreases with high injection rates. This realization is important because many centers increasingly use high-injection-rate CT.