TY  - JOUR
A1  - Mahmoudi, Scherwin
A1  - Lange, Marvin
A1  - Lenga, Lukas
A1  - Yel, Ibrahim
A1  - Koch, Vitali
A1  - Booz, Christian
A1  - Martin, Simon
A1  - Bernatz, Simon
A1  - Vogl, Thomas J.
A1  - Albrecht, Moritz Hans Ernst
A1  - Scholtz, Jan-Erik
T1  - Salvaging low contrast abdominal CT studies using noise-optimised virtual monoenergetic image reconstruction
T2  - BJR Open
N2  - Objectives: To assess the impact of noise-optimised virtual monoenergetic imaging (VMI+) on image quality and diagnostic evaluation in abdominal dual-energy CT scans with impaired portal-venous contrast.
Methods: We screened 11,746 patients who underwent portal-venous abdominal dual-energy CT for cancer staging between 08/2014 and 11/2019 and identified those with poor portal-venous contrast.
Standard linearly-blended image series and VMI+ image series at 40, 50, and 60 keV were reconstructed. Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) of abdominal organs and vascular structures were calculated. Image noise, image contrast and overall image quality were rated by three radiologists using 5-point Likert scale.
Results: 452 of 11,746 (4%) exams were poorly opacified. We excluded 190 cases due to incomplete datasets or multiple exams of the same patient with a final study group of 262. Highest CNR values in all abdominal organs (liver, 6.4 ± 3.0; kidney, 17.4 ± 7.5; spleen, 8.0 ± 3.5) and vascular structures (aorta, 16.0 ± 7.3; intrahepatic vein, 11.3 ± 4.7; portal vein, 15.5 ± 6.7) were measured at 40 keV VMI+ with significantly superior values compared to all other series. In subjective analysis, highest image contrast was seen at 40 keV VMI+ (4.8 ± 0.4), whereas overall image quality peaked at 50 keV VMI+ (4.2 ± 0.5) with significantly superior results compared to all other series (p < 0.001).
Conclusions: Image reconstruction using VMI+ algorithm at 50 keV significantly improves image contrast and image quality of originally poorly opacified abdominal CT scans and reduces the number of non-diagnostic scans.
Advances in knowledge: We validated the impact of VMI+ reconstructions in poorly attenuated DECT studies of the abdomen in a big data cohort.
KW  - Gastrointestinal
KW  - Medical Physics: Diagnostic
Y1  - 2022
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/85914
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-859140
SN  - 2513-9878
N1  - Gefördert durch den Open-Access-Publikationsfonds der Goethe-Universität
VL  - 4
IS  - 1, art. 20220006
SP  - 1
EP  - 10
PB  - British Institute of Radiology
CY  - [Erscheinungsort nicht ermittelbar]
ER  -