Sunday, November 26 | 9:10 a.m.-9:20 a.m. | S1-SSCH01-2 | Room S401
Photon-counting CT (PCCT) improves the contrast-to-noise ratio of vascular structures imaged on chest CT when compared with conventional CT -- and reduces radiation dose, according to a presentation to be delivered on Sunday morning.
A team led by Pooyan Khalighinejad, MD, of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas compared PCCT to energy-integrating detector CT (EID-CT), assessing the two techniques' radiation dose, image noise, and contrast-to-noise ratios for four chest anatomy structures. Included in the research were 30 patients referred for routine PCCT, all of whom had undergone conventional CT within the past two years (median interval between the two exams, 123 days). The team assessed radiation dose in the right lung, the aorta, the pulmonary artery, the thyroid, the right latissimus dorsi, and in mediastinal fat.
The group found the following:
- Mean CT dose index-volume and dose length product values were lower on PCCT compared with conventional CT (p < 0.01 and p < 0.05, respectively).
- Contrast-to-noise-ratio in the aorta, pulmonary artery, and thyroid were higher in PCCT compared with EID-CT (p < 0.001, p < 0.05, and p < 0.001, respectively).
"[Our] findings reveal that PCCT significantly enhances the CNR of vascular and iodine-rich structures in chest CT while using a lower radiation dose compared to EID-CT," the team reported.
