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Virtual monoenergetic imaging in rapid kVp-switching dual-energy CT (DECT) of the abdomen: impact on CT texture analysis

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Abstract

Purpose

To study the impact of keV levels of virtual monoenergetic images generated from rapid kVp-switching dual-energy CT (rsDECT) on CT texture analysis (CTTA).

Methods

This study included 30 consecutive patients (59.3 ± 12 years; range 34–77 years; 17M:13F) who underwent portal venous phase abdominal CT on a rsDECT scanner. Axial 5-mm monoenergetic images at 5 energy levels (40/50/60/70/80 keV) were created and CTTA of liver was performed. CTTA comprised a filtration-histogram technique with different spatial scale filter (SSF) values (0–6). CTTA quantification at each SSF value included histogram-based statistical parameters such as mean intensity, standard deviation (SD), entropy, mean of positive pixels (MPP), skewness, and kurtosis. The values were compared using repeated measures ANOVA.

Results

Among the different CTTA metrics, mean intensity (at SSF > 0), skewness, and kurtosis did not show variability whereas entropy, MPP, and SD varied with different keV levels. There was no change in skewness and kurtosis values for all 6 filters (p > 0.05). Mean intensity showed no change for filters 2–6 (p > 0.05). Mean intensity at SSF = 0 i.e., mean attenuations were 91.2 ± 2.9, 108.7 ± 3.6, 136.1 ± 4.7, 179.8 ± 6.9, and 250.5 ± 10.1 HU for 80, 70, 60, 50, and 40 keV images, respectively demonstrating significant variability (decrease) with increasing keV levels (p < 0.001). Entropy, MPP, and SD values showed a statistically significant decrease with increasing keV of monoenergetic images on all 6 filters (p < 0.001).

Conclusion

The energy levels of monoenergetic images have variable impact on the different CTTA parameters, with no significant change in skewness, kurtosis, and filtered mean intensity whereas significant decrease in mean attenuation, entropy, MPP, and SD values with increasing energy levels.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, White 270, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA, 02114, USA

    Vinit Baliyan, Hamed Kordbacheh, Dushyant Sahani & Avinash Kambadakone

  2. Imaging Associates, Eastern Health, Box Hill, VIC, Australia

    Bimal Parameswaran

  3. Institute of Nuclear Medicine, University College London, London, UK

    Balaji Ganeshan

Authors
  1. Vinit Baliyan
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  2. Hamed Kordbacheh
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  3. Bimal Parameswaran
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  4. Balaji Ganeshan
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  6. Avinash Kambadakone
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Avinash Kambadakone.

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Disclosure

Balaji Ganeshan: director, part-time employee, and shareholder of Feedback Plc (Cambridge, England, UK), company that develops and markets the TexRAD texture analysis algorithm described in this manuscript. Dushyant Sahani: GE healthcare research grant, royalties from Elsevier.

Funding

This study was not funded.

Ethical approval

This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.

Conflict of Interest

Balaji Ganeshan is director, part-time employee, and shareholder of Feedback Plc (Cambridge, England, UK), company that develops and markets the TexRAD texture analysis algorithm described in this manuscript. Dushyant Sahani has GE healthcare research grant, royalties from Elsevier, other authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Baliyan, V., Kordbacheh, H., Parameswaran, B. et al. Virtual monoenergetic imaging in rapid kVp-switching dual-energy CT (DECT) of the abdomen: impact on CT texture analysis. Abdom Radiol 43, 2693–2701 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00261-018-1527-y

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