Computer tomography of the spinal canal using metrizamide.

Eleven patients have been examined by whole body CT employing the EMI CT 5000 following lumbar injection of 10 ml of metrizamide (Amipaque) 170 mg I/ml. The distribution, flow and dilution of the contrast medium have been investigated. The results suggest that whilst metrizamide is necessary in the spinal canal to demonstrate the neural axis and pathologic processes affecting it, it appears to enter the extracellular space of the spinal cord during the first hour and achieves an equilibrium in the subarachnoid space and spinal cord from 3 to 6 hours. The medium may concentrate in a second compartment, possibly intracellular, from 3 to 6 hours. The effect of spectral filtering by metrizamide on the attenuation values of the spinal cord has been modelled and shown not to be significant at the anticipated dilution of the medium in the cerebrospinal fluid space and the spinal canal.