LAN Xing1, TANG Hao2, ZHOU Fan3, ZHOU Chang-sheng2, HUANG Wei2
(1.School of Medical Imaging, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou Jiangsu 221004, China;
2.Department of Medical Imaging, Jinling Hospital, Nanjing 210002, China;
3.Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital Affiliated with Medical School of Nanjing University, Nanjing 210008, China)
Abstract：Objective: To assess the clinical feasibility of dual-source CT enterography using dual-energy virtual non-contrast(VNCT) imaging in diagnosis of inflammatory bowel diseases. Materials and Methods: The dual-energy dual-source CT enterography data from a cohort of 37 inflammatory bowel disease patients(31 Crohn’s disease and 6 ulcerative colitis), who were confirmed by clinical settings, were analyzed retrospectively. All the patients underwent abdominal conventional non-enhanced CT scan(CNCT) as well as arterial and venous phase dual-energy enhanced scan(100 kVp/210 mAs and Sn140 kVp/162 mAs). VNCT images of arterial and venous phase were obtained using the dual-energy software. The differences of image quality, radiation dose and diagnostic coincidence rate between the true non-contrast scan and VNC images were compared. Results: Compared with CNCT images, all the inflammatory bowel segments were detected accurately by VNCT images, and there was no significant difference of size and extent of lesions between the CNCT and VNCT. All the VNCT images met the requirement of diagnosis, and the differences of intestinal wall thickness, intestinal wall edema or effusion, intestinal morphology and lymph node size were no significant. The noise level of images obtained from VNC was lower than that of the real non-contrast scan(P<0.05), with higher SNR(P<0.05). There was no significant difference of image scoring among the three groups(P>0.05). There was no statistic difference of the radiation dose of conventional non-enhanced CT, arterial and venous phase CECT. The radiation dose of two-phase dual-energy scan was 32.97% lower than that of the conventional threephase scans. Conclusion: For inflammatory bowel diseases, the virtual non-contrast images obtained from the dual-energy CT scan can effectively reduce the radiation dose, decrease radiation injury, and meet the needs of clinical diagnosis.
2017, Vol. 28 
