CTisus Contrast Protocols - CTisus.com CT Scanning

Oral Contrast

1. Why do we use oral contrast?

Oral contrast is used to opacify or identify the GI tract be it esophagus, stomach, small bowel or colon. Depending on the clinical situation we will use different agents for study optimization. The two most common agents are positive agents (i.e. oral Omnipaque in solution) or neutral agents like water or air.

An important role of oral contrast is to separate intraluminal contrast from extraluminal collections (i.e. abscess) to allow for accurate detection of an abscess in the patient with an FUO. Proper use of oral contrast also allows us to routinely detect GI tracts tumors which will otherwise often go undiagnosed early.

Contrast in Stomach has Attenuation of 252H


Small bowel attenuation is 263H


Normal ileum at 35 minutes post oral ingestion


Crohns disease

	2. What kind of oral contrast do we use?
	3. When do we use positive agents and when do we use neutral agents?
	4. What are the advantages of oral LOCM (Omnipaque)?
	5. Is there any contraindication to the use of oral contrast?
	6. If a patient has had a prior reaction to IV contrast can we still use oral contrast?
	7. Part 1: When does the patient get the oral contrast relative to the time the patients get the actual CT scan? Part 2: Does this differ between inpatients and outpatients?
	8. Are there any other oral contrasts that are used?
	9. Can you use a single bottle of Omnipaque -350 at multiple time points by drawing 10-20 cc at a time to use to mix oral contrast?
	10. What is VoLumen and when do you use it?

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