Effectiveness of the new injection program 'saline test injection mode' for use power injector in pediatric contrast CT.

To improve the safety of the use of a power injector for pediatric contrast CT, we newly developed a saline test injection mode for a power injector and investigated its usefulness. We used an injection route and investigated the relationship of the injection pressure to the injection rate of saline and the contrast medium. From this relationship, we investigated it was possible to estimate the change of pressure injection of contrast medium from the pressure change of saline injection. The correlation between the saline test injection pressure and the contrast medium injection pressure was investigated in 64 clinical cases. The detection rate of side effects from the saline test injection was investigated in 473 patients. Regarding the correlation between the injection rate and pressure for both saline and contrast, the pressure rose as the rate increased. The contrast medium injection pressure could be estimated from the correlation observed with saline. The clinical data were obtained had a relationship similar to that with phantom data. The detection rate of side effects from the saline test injection was 4.4% in the clinical cases. In these cases, examinations were completed by re-establishing an injection route or administering hypnotics. Our results suggest that contrast medium pressure can be estimated from a saline test injection, thus aiding in prediction of the risk of injection abnormality. Reactions to injections could be observed in the present study, facilitating the prevention of examination failure. Countermeasures can be taken against the cause of the reaction, and the examination can be performed after confirming the absence of a reaction to injection. Therefore, a saline test injection may be useful in pediatric contrast CT.