title: Acute brain perfusion disorders in children assessed by quantitative perfusion computed tomography in the emergency setting.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Perfusion computed tomography (CT) is a simple imaging technique that allows accurate quantitative assessment of brain perfusion. Perfusion CT is an ideal imaging technique to be used in the emergency setting and has thus gained recognition in the early management of adult acute stroke patients. Perfusion CT can be applied to children successfully by using adequate imaging protocols. The goal of this article is to provide a pictorial essay of the perfusion CT features of diseases that affect brain perfusion as depicted in a population of children who were evaluated in the emergency CT unit of our institution.
  
  
  METHODS
  During the period of September 2001 to October 2002, all the children, who were evaluated in the emergency CT unit of our institution and who were prescribed with a cerebral CT and an intravenous administration of iodinated contrast material, underwent a perfusion-CT examination. Perfusion-CT maps were reviewed in the patients diagnosed as abnormal on the basis of follow-up clinical/radiological examinations and correlated with the results of these tests.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Brain perfusion-CT examinations have been performed in 77 children. Fifty-three patients were considered as normal, based on normal conventional cerebral CT and normal clinical/radiological follow-up. Perfusion-CT results showed major abnormalities in 14 cases among the 24 remaining patients, related to brain ischemia in 2, head trauma in 9, brain infection in 2, and sickle cell disease in 1. These abnormalities consisted in low regional cerebral blood flow and volume values, and in high mean transit time values. They demonstrated typical anatomical distribution, depending on the considered pathological condition.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Perfusion CT provides quantitative assessment of child brain perfusion disorders. Its ability to be easily performed upon admission makes it an ideal emergency tool that advantageously competes with other imaging techniques such as perfusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging, despite its limited spatial coverage. Its usefulness with respect to the impact on treatment and outcome, however, remains to be established in further studies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland. Max_Wintermark@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Max
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wintermark
authors.forename: Jacques
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cotting
authors.forename: Eliane
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Roulet
authors.forename: Domenico
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lepori
authors.forename: Reto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Meuli
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Maeder
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Regli
authors.forename: Thierry
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Deonna
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Schnyder
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gudinchet
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000465:Algorithms; D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004630:Emergencies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods