Strangulation in Blunt Cerebrovascular Injury CTA Screening: More Scans, No Extra Detection

Adding strangulation to CT angiography screening criteria for blunt cerebrovascular injury (BCVI) increased utilization but did not improve detection: only 1.6% of patients screened for strangulation had BCVI vs 22.1% for other indications. (n=253)

• Retrospective single-center study of 253 CTA exams for BCVI over a 2-month period.
• 42 of 43 BCVI cases met both 2016 and 2020 criteria; the 2020 criteria captured no additional injuries.
• Limited by retrospective design, small strangulation subgroup (n=63), and single-center setting.

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