TY - JOUR
T1 - Feasibility of dose-reduced chest CT with photon-counting detectors
T2 - Initial results in humans
AU - Symons, Rolf
AU - Pourmorteza, Amir
AU - Sandfort, Veit
AU - Ahlman, Mark A.
AU - Cropper, Tracy
AU - Mallek, Marissa
AU - Kappler, Steffen
AU - Ulzheimer, Stefan
AU - Mahesh, Mahadevappa
AU - Jones, Elizabeth C.
AU - Malayeri, Ashkan A.
AU - Folio, Les R.
AU - Bluemke, David A.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 RSNA.
PY - 2017/12
Y1 - 2017/12
N2 - To investigate whether photon-counting detector (PCD) technology can improve dose-reduced chest computed tomography (CT) image quality compared with that attained with conventional energy-integrating detector (EID) technology in vivo. Materials and Methods: This was a HIPAA-compliant institutional review boardapproved study, with informed consent from patients. Dose-reduced spiral unenhanced lung EID and PCD CT examinations were performed in 30 asymptomatic volunteers in accordance with manufacturer-recommended guidelines for CT lung cancer screening (120-kVp tube voltage, 20-mAs reference tube current.time product for both detectors). Quantitative analysis of images included measurement of mean attenuation, noise power spectrum (NPS), and lung nodule contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR). Images were qualitatively analyzed by three radiologists blinded to detector type. Reproducibility was assessed with the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). McNemar, paired t, and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used to compare image quality. Results: Thirty study subjects were evaluated (mean age, 55.0 years±8.7 [standard deviation]; 14 men). Of these patients, 10 had a normal body mass index (BMI) (BMI range, 18.5.24.9 kg/m2; group 1), 10 were overweight (BMI range, 25.0.29.9 kg/m2; group 2), and 10 were obese (BMI d30.0 kg/m2, group 3). PCD diagnostic quality was higher than EID diagnostic quality (P = .016, P = .016, and P = .013 for readers 1, 2, and 3, respectively), with significantly better NPS and image quality scores for lung, soft tissue, and bone and with fewer beam-hardening artifacts (all P<.001). Image noise was significantly lower for PCD images in all BMI groups (P<.001 for groups 1 and 3, P<.01 for group 2), with higher CNR for lung nodule detection (12.1±1.7 vs 10.0±1.8, P<.001). Inter- A nd intrareader reproducibility were good (all ICC>0.800). Conclusion: Initial human experience with dose-reduced PCD chest CT demonstrated lower image noise compared with conventional EID CT, with better diagnostic quality and lung nodule CNR.
AB - To investigate whether photon-counting detector (PCD) technology can improve dose-reduced chest computed tomography (CT) image quality compared with that attained with conventional energy-integrating detector (EID) technology in vivo. Materials and Methods: This was a HIPAA-compliant institutional review boardapproved study, with informed consent from patients. Dose-reduced spiral unenhanced lung EID and PCD CT examinations were performed in 30 asymptomatic volunteers in accordance with manufacturer-recommended guidelines for CT lung cancer screening (120-kVp tube voltage, 20-mAs reference tube current.time product for both detectors). Quantitative analysis of images included measurement of mean attenuation, noise power spectrum (NPS), and lung nodule contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR). Images were qualitatively analyzed by three radiologists blinded to detector type. Reproducibility was assessed with the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). McNemar, paired t, and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used to compare image quality. Results: Thirty study subjects were evaluated (mean age, 55.0 years±8.7 [standard deviation]; 14 men). Of these patients, 10 had a normal body mass index (BMI) (BMI range, 18.5.24.9 kg/m2; group 1), 10 were overweight (BMI range, 25.0.29.9 kg/m2; group 2), and 10 were obese (BMI d30.0 kg/m2, group 3). PCD diagnostic quality was higher than EID diagnostic quality (P = .016, P = .016, and P = .013 for readers 1, 2, and 3, respectively), with significantly better NPS and image quality scores for lung, soft tissue, and bone and with fewer beam-hardening artifacts (all P<.001). Image noise was significantly lower for PCD images in all BMI groups (P<.001 for groups 1 and 3, P<.01 for group 2), with higher CNR for lung nodule detection (12.1±1.7 vs 10.0±1.8, P<.001). Inter- A nd intrareader reproducibility were good (all ICC>0.800). Conclusion: Initial human experience with dose-reduced PCD chest CT demonstrated lower image noise compared with conventional EID CT, with better diagnostic quality and lung nodule CNR.
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U2 - 10.1148/radiol.2017162587
DO - 10.1148/radiol.2017162587
M3 - Article
C2 - 28753389
AN - SCOPUS:85034866847
SN - 0033-8419
VL - 285
SP - 980
EP - 989
JO - RADIOLOGY
JF - RADIOLOGY
IS - 3
ER -