Objectives: To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy and the potential radiation dose reduction of dual-energy CT (DECT) for tumor (T) staging of colorectal cancer (CRC) using iodine overlay (IO) and virtual nonenhanced (VNE) images.
Materials and methods: This retrospective study included 103 consecutive patients who underwent nonenhanced CT and enhanced DECT for preoperative CRC staging. Enhanced weighted-average (WA), IO and VNE images were reconstructed from enhanced 80 kVp and Sn140 kVp scans. Two radiologists assessed image qualities of the true nonenhanced (TNE) and VNE images. For T-staging, another two radiologists independently interpreted all scans in two separate reading sessions: in the first session, only images derived from the single phase DECT acquisition (IO and VNE images) were read. In the second reading session after 30 to 50 (average:42) days, the same assessment was again performed with the TNE and enhanced WA images thereby simulating conventional dual-phase single-energy CT. The tumor node metastasis (TNM) system was used for staging with histopathologic reports as gold standard. Analysis of variance was used for statistical analysis.
Results: The signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of the tumors and normal reference tissues showed significant correlation between the TNE and VNE images (P<0.01). The mean iodine overlay value (48.4 HU±12.2) and enhancement (49.4 HU±11.8) value of CRCs had no significant difference (P = 0.52).The mean image noise on TNE (5.0±1.1) and VNE (5.3±1.1) images were similar (P = 0.07). The quantitative qualities of the VNE images were mildly inferior to the TNE images. Overall accuracy of T-stage CRC when using single-phase acquisition was slightly better than the dual-phase acquisition (90.3% vs 87.4%) (P = 0.51). The mean dose of the single-phase DECT acquisition was 6.2 mSv comparing with 14.3 mSv of dual-phase.
Conclusion: Single-phase DECT using IO and VNE images yields a high accuracy in T-staging of CRCs. Thereby, the radiation exposure of the patients can be reduced.