Key Points
• Dual energy and spectral CT are novel techniques becoming more widely available
• These technological advances require a new attenuation scale: spectral Hounsfield units
• We suggest a modification to this new attenuation scale proposed by Hurrell et al.
• We also propose a new scale for assessing novel CT contrast media
References
Hurrell AH, Butler APH, Cook NJ, Butler PH, Ronaldson JP, Zainon R (2012) Spectral Hounsfield units: a new radiological concept. Eur Radiol 22:1008–1013
Galper MW, Saung MT, Fuster V et al (2012) Effect of computed tomography scanning parameters on gold nanoparticle and iodine contrast. Invest Radiol 47:475–481
Cormode DP, Roessl E, Thran A et al (2010) Atherosclerotic plaque composition: analysis with multicolor CT and targeted gold nanoparticles. Radiology 256:774–782
Lumbroso P, Dick CE (1987) X-ray attenuation properties of radiographic contrast media. Med Phys 14:752–758
van Schooneveld MM, Cormode DP, Koole R et al (2010) A fluorescent, paramagnetic and PEGylated gold/silica nanoparticle for MRI, CT and fluorescence imaging. Contrast Media Mol Imaging 5:231–236
Mieszawska AJ, Gianella A, Cormode DP, Zhao Y, Meijerink A, Langer R, Farokhzad OC, Fayad ZA, Mulder WJM (2012) Engineering of lipid-coated PLGA nanoparticles with a tunable payload of diagnostically active nanocrystals for medical imaging. Chem Commun 48:5835–5837
Pan D, Roessl E, Schlomka J-P et al (2010) Computed tomography in color: nanoK-enhanced spectral CT molecular imaging. Angew Chem Int Ed 49:9635–9639
de Vries A, Custers E, Lub J, van den Bosch S, Nicolay K, Grull H (2010) Block-copolymer-stabilized iodinated emulsions for use as CT contrast agents. Biomaterials 31:6537–6544
Guo R, Wang H, Peng C et al (2010) X-ray attenuation property of dendrimer-entrapped gold nanoparticles. J Phys Chem C 114:50–56
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), as a Program of Excellence in Nanotechnology (PEN) Award (Contract no. HHSN268201000045C), as well as by the NIH grants R00 EB012165 (D.P.C.) and R01 EB009638 (Z.A.F.) for support.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cormode, D.P., Fayad, Z.A. Letter to the Editor re: Spectral Hounsfield units—a new radiological concept. Eur Radiol 23, 640–641 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-012-2645-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-012-2645-5