Radiology, Vol 144, 51-54, Copyright © 1982 by Radiological Society of North America
Evaluation of digital venous angiography for the diagnosis of renovascular hypertension
CW Smith, AC Winfield, RR Price, DR Harding, SW Tucker, WS Witt and JW Hollifield
Thirty-two patients being evaluated for hypertension by angiography were
also studied by digital video subtraction angiography (DVSA). Twenty-three
of the 76 renal arteries were found by conventional angiography to have
significant lesions. Two experienced angiographers evaluated the DVSA
studies without knowledge of the angiographic results. The accuracy of DVSA
for evaluation of renal arteries was 87% for Observer I and 80% for
Observer II. Sensitivities were 87% and 83% and specificities 87% and 79%
for the two observers. Of the 13 patients with significant lesions,
Observer I identified at lest one lesion in all 13 while Observer II
identified a lesion in 12 of the 13. The high false-positive rate (26% for
Observer I and 37% for Observer II) was thought to be caused by subtraction
artifacts, quantum noise, relatively low spatial resolution, and the Mach
effect.
