Xenon-enhanced Cranial Computed Tomography (Part II)

Clinical Study

Abstract

Clinical experience on xenon-enhanced cranial computed tomography was reported. Sixteen patients (10 with cerebral vascular diseases, 4 with brain tumors, and two with normal pressure hydrocephalus or brain atrophy) were studied with CT before and during xenon inhalation. In two cases, serial CT scans were done to obtain the clearance rate of xenon from the brain tissue. The results obtained would not have been possible with conventional plain or intravenously enhanced CT scans. Both the static and dynamic xenon-enhanced CT should prove useful for observation of the pathophysiology of the brain. Caution must be exercised, however, against its anesthetic effects.