Stomach virtual non-enhanced CT with second-generation, dual-energy CT: a preliminary study.

Abstract

To compare the true non-enhanced (TNE) and virtual non-enhanced (VNE) data sets in patients who underwent gastric preoperative dual-energy CT (DECT) and to evaluate potential radiation dose reduction by omitting a TNE scan.A total of 74 patients underwent gastric DECT. The mean CT values, length, image quality and effective radiation doses for VNE and TNE images were compared.There was no statistical difference in maximal thickness of gastric tumors and maximal diameter of enlarged lymph nodes among the TNE and VNE images (P>0.05). The mean CT value differences between TNE and VNE were statistically significant for all tissue types, except for aorta attenuation measurements (P<0.05), but the absolute differences were under 10 HU. Lower noise was found for VNE images than TNE images (P<0.01). Image quality of VNE was diagnostic but lower than that of TNE (P<0.01). The dose reduction achieved by omitting the TNE acquisition was 21.40 ± 4.44%.VNE scan may potentially replace TNE as part of a multi-phase gastric preoperative staging imaging protocol with consequent saving in radiation dose.