Faculty Collaboration Database

Renal Lesion Characterization with Spectral CT: Determining the Optimal Energy for Virtual Monoenergetic Reconstruction. Radiology 2018 Jun;287(3):874-883

Date

02/23/2018

Pubmed ID

29470937

DOI

10.1148/radiol.2018171657

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-85047650708 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   29 Citations

Abstract

Purpose To investigate the relationship between energy level of virtual monoenergetic (VM) imaging and sensitivity in the detection of minimally enhancing renal lesions. Materials and Methods Phantoms simulating unenhanced and contrast material-enhanced renal parenchyma were equipped with inserts containing different concentrations of iodine (range, 0-1.15 mg iodine per milliliter). A total of 180 patients (117 men; mean age, 65.2 years ± 13.0 [standard deviation]) with 194 (62 solid, 132 cystic) renal lesions larger than 10 mm in diameter underwent unenhanced single-energy CT and contrast-enhanced dual-energy CT. VM imaging data sets were created for 70, 80, 90, and 100 keV. Renal lesions were measured, and enhancement was calculated. Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) for renal lesion characterization was determined by using the DeLong method. Results The AUC was highest at 70 keV and decreased as energy increased toward 100 keV. AUC in the phantom decreased from 98% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 95, 100) at 70 keV to 88% (95% CI: 79, 96) at 100 keV (P = .004). AUC in patients decreased from 96% (95% CI: 94, 98) at 70 keV to 79% (95% CI: 71, 86) at 100 keV (P = .001). In patients with an enhancement threshold of 15 HU, sensitivity in the detection of solid renal lesions decreased between from 91% (49 of 62 [95% CI: 78, 97]) at 70 keV to 48% (33 of 62 [95% CI: 25, 71]) at 100 keV (P < .05), with no change in specificity (93% [120 of 132 {95% CI: 87, 97}] at 70 keV, 97% [125 of 132 {95% CI: 92, 99}] at 100 keV). Conclusion There is a reduction in diagnostic accuracy for renal lesion characterization with increasing VM imaging energy. The 70-keV setting may provide an optimal trade-off between sensitivity and specificity. ^© RSNA, 2018 Online supplemental material is available for this article.

Author List

Schabel C, Patel B, Harring S, Duvnjak P, Ramírez-Giraldo JC, Nikolaou K, Nelson RC, Farjat AE, Marin D

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Aged
Contrast Media
Female
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Iodine
Kidney
Kidney Neoplasms
Male
Phantoms, Imaging
Radiographic Image Enhancement
Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted
Radiography, Dual-Energy Scanned Projection
Reproducibility of Results
Retrospective Studies
Sensitivity and Specificity
Tomography, X-Ray Computed