Comparative analysis of two kinds of virtual unenhanced technique of spectral CT and routine plain CT in thorax
10.13929/j.1003-3289.201812006
- VernacularTitle: 对比分析两种胸部能谱CT虚拟平扫图像与常规平扫图像
- Author:
Huixia WANG
1
Author Information
1. Department of Radiology, First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- Keywords:
Image quality;
Thorax;
Tomography;
Virtual unenhanced technique;
X-ray computed
- From:
Chinese Journal of Medical Imaging Technology
2019;35(9):1409-1413
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
Objective: To investigate image quality of virtual unenhanced images (VUE) and material suppressed iodine images (MSI) compared with true unenhanced images (TUE), and to explore the application value of virtual unenhanced technique in chest CT scanning. Methods: Forty patients underwent conventional unenhanced CT and contrast-enhanced CT with spectral imaging mode, and dual-phase enhanced scanning with GSI Assist mode was performed. VUE based on initial data and MSI based on contrast-enhanced images during arterial phase (AP) and venous phase (VP) were generated, respectively. CT values and standard (SD), CNR of thoracic aorta, pulmonary artery, erector spinae muscle and fat and qualitative visual parameters (image quality as graded on a 5-point scale) were compared. Statistical analysis was performed with One-way ANOVA, Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis H tests. Results: CT value of pulmonary artery and thoracic aorta in AP-MSI were significantly different with those in TUE (both P<0.005). Compared with TUE, there was no significant difference of CT value, SD nor CNR in AP-VUE, VP-VUE and VP-MSI (all P>0.05). Compared with TUE, qualitative visual parameters had no difference with VP-VUE (all P>0.005), which were lower in AP-VUE, AP-MSI and VP-MSI (all P<0.005). The radiation dose reduced by 19.29% with VUE compared with TUE. Conclusion: Using VUE could acquire better image quality than MSI with reducing radiation dose. VP-VUE has similar image quality to TUE, which has potential to replace TUE.
