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Spectral CT Imaging in Patients with Budd-Chiari Syndrome: Investigation of Image Quality

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Abstract

To assess the image quality of monochromatic imaging from spectral CT in patients with Budd-Chiari syndrome (BCS), fifty patients with BCS underwent spectral CT to generate conventional 140 kVp polychromatic images (group A) and monochromatic images, with energy levels from 40 to 80, 40 + 70, and 50 + 70 keV fusion images (group B) during the portal venous phase (PVP) and the hepatic venous phase (HVP). Two-sample t tests compared vessel-to-liver contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for the portal vein (PV), hepatic vein (HV), inferior vena cava. Readers’ subjective evaluations of the image quality were recorded. The highest SNR values in group B were distributed at 50 keV; the highest CNR values in group B were distributed at 40 keV. The higher CNR values and SNR values were obtained though PVP of PV (SNR 18.39 ± 6.13 vs. 10.56 ± 3.31, CNR 7.81 ± 3.40 vs. 3.58 ± 1.31) and HVP of HV (3.89 ± 2.08 vs. 1.27 ± 1.55) in the group B; the lower image noise for group B was at 70 keV and 50 + 70 keV (15.54 ± 8.39 vs. 18.40 ± 4.97, P = 0.0004 and 18.97 ± 7.61 vs. 18.40 ± 4.97, P = 0.0691); the results show that the 50 + 70 keV fusion image quality was better than that in group A. Monochromatic energy levels of 40–70, 40 + 70, and 50 + 70 keV fusion image can increase vascular contrast and that will be helpful for the diagnosis of BCS, we select the 50 + 70 keV fusion image to acquire the best BCS images.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, No. 1, East Jian She Road, Zhengzhou, 450052, Henan Province, China

    Lei Su, Junqiang Dong, Jie Liu, Peijie Lv, Lili Hu, Liangliang Yan & Jianbo Gao

  2. Department of Stomatology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, No. 1, East Jian She Road, Zhengzhou, 450052, Henan Province, China

    Qiang Sun

Authors
  1. Lei Su
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  2. Junqiang Dong
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  3. Qiang Sun
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  4. Jie Liu
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  5. Peijie Lv
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  6. Lili Hu
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  7. Liangliang Yan
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  8. Jianbo Gao
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Correspondence to Jianbo Gao.

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Lei Su and Junqiang Dong contributed equally to this work.

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Su, L., Dong, J., Sun, Q. et al. Spectral CT Imaging in Patients with Budd-Chiari Syndrome: Investigation of Image Quality. Cell Biochem Biophys 70, 1043–1049 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12013-014-0021-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12013-014-0021-6

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