The value of gemstone spectral CT imaging in characterizing the benign and malignant solitary pulmonary nodules

Abstract

Objective To explore the value of gemstone spectral imaging (GSI) with single source dual-energy CT in characterizing the benign and malignant solitary pulmonary nodules (SPN).Methods Totally 32 patients with SPN underwent phaseⅢ enhanced CT scan using single source dual-energy CT by GSI mode.Three types of images were reconstructed for analysis:the water concentration (WC),iodine concentration (IC) and normalized iodine concentration (NIC).Results The IC of lung squamous cell carcinoma lung adenocarcinoma,hamartoma,sclerosing hemangioma,inflammatory pseudotumor were (11.66± 2.72) μg/ml,(12.36±2.97) μg/ml,(10.20±3.11) μg/ml,(16.58±3.58) μg/ml,(21.67±3.76) μg/ml,the IC of lung adenocarcinoma and lung squamous cell carcinoma had no difference (P ＞ 0.05),there were significant differences in the value of iodine material between other nodules (all P ＜ 0.05).The WC of lung adenocarcinoma,lung squamous cell carcinoma,hamartoma,sclerosing hemangioma,inflammatory pseudotumor were (1 021.31±13.83) μg/ml,(1 027.98±12.53) μg/ml,(1 003.42±13.67) μg/ml,(1 029.61±12.06) μg/ml,(1 051.61±13.81) μg/ml,there was no significant difference in the value of water material between nodules (all P ＞ 0.05).Conclusion The spectral CT imaging may be helpful for characterizing the pathological type of SPN. Key words: Solitary pulmonary nodules; CT spectral imaging; Diagnosis, differential