Utilization of double contrast-enhancement boost for lower-extremity CT angiography.

We aimed to compare the efficacy of the double contrast enhancement (CE)-boost technique with that of conventional methods to improve vascular contrast attenuation in lower-extremity computed tomography (CT) angiography. This retrospective study enrolled 45 patients (mean age, 70 years; range, 26 to 90 years; 30 males). To generate the CE-boost image, the degree of CE was determined by subtracting the post-contrast CT images from the pre-contrast CT images. The double CE-boost technique involves the application of this CE process twice. Both objective assessments (CT attenuation, noise level, signal-to-noise ratio [SNR], contrast-to-noise ratio [CNR], and image sharpness) and subjective quality evaluations were conducted on three types of images (conventional, CE-boost, and double CE-boost images). Double CE-boost images demonstrated significantly reduced noise in Hounsfield units (HUs) compared with conventional and CE-boost images (