Relative Threshold of Detection of Active Arterial Bleeding: In Vitro Comparison of MDCT and Digital Subtraction Angiography

Abstract

In vitro, i.v. contrast-enhanced MDCT is more sensitive than first-order aortic branch-selective DSA in detecting active hemorrhage unless the catheter position is highly superselective and is close to the bleeding artery. These results suggest that MDCT can be used as the initial imaging technique in the diagnosis of active hemorrhage if the clinical condition of the patient allows.