Molecular characterization of solitary pulmonary nodules in dual-energy CT nonlinear image fusion technology

Abstract

Objective

To investigate the feasibility and to optimize the parameters of nonlinear blending technique in dual-energy CT on solitary pulmonary nodules (SPN).

Methods

The simulated enhanced SPN were used the mixture of nonionic iodinated contrast agent (Iopromide 370mgI/100 ml) and normal saline and then randomly placed inside an anthropomorphic chest phantom. The phantom was examined on SOMATOM definition flash with dual mode (80/140 kV) and single energy mode (120 kV) (the same CTDIvol). Nonlinear blending images and linear blending images with a weighting factor of 0.3 were generated and the image qualities were analyzed.

Results

For different simulated density SPN, when 0 HU was chosen as the Blending Center (BC) and 0 to 30 HU were chosen as the Blending width (BW), the nonlinear blending images yielded a higher contrast-to-noise (CNR). There were significant differences in the image noise and signal-to-noise (SNR) of different simulated density SPN at non-linear blending images, linear blending images and 120 kV images (p < .05); But the differences of CNR between the three groups were not statistically significant (p > .05). The SNR of different simulated density SPN at non-linear blending images was significantly increased compared with it at linear blending images and 120 kV images (p < .05); And the image noise at non-linear blending was lower than it at linear blending images (p < .05).

Conclusion

Nonlinear blending technique in dual-energy CT can increase the SNR of enhanced SPN, and it is helpful in diagnosis of SPN.

Keywords:

• Dual-energy CT
• non-linear blending
• solitary pulmonary nodule

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The analyzed data sets generated during the study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.