The aim of the study was to explore the efficacy of iodine quantification with dual-energy computed tomography (DECT) in differentiating thymoma, thymic carcinoma, and thymic lymphoma.
Materials and methods: Fifty-seven patients with pathologically confirmed low-risk thymoma (n = 16), high-risk thymoma (n = 15), thymic carcinoma (n = 14), and thymic lymphoma (n = 12) underwent chest contrast-enhanced DECT scan were enrolled in this study. Tumor DECT parameters including iodine-related Hounsfield unit (IHU), iodine concentration (IC), mixed HU (MHU), and iodine ratio in dual phase, slope of energy spectral HU curve (λ), and virtual noncontrast (VNC) were compared for differences among 4 groups by one-way analysis of variance. Receiver operating characteristic curve was used to determine the efficacy for differentiating the low-risk thymoma from other thymic tumor by defined parameters.
Results: According to quantitative analysis, dual-phase IHU, IC, and MHU values in patients with low-risk thymoma were significantly increased compared with patients with high-risk thymoma, thymic carcinoma, and thymic lymphoma (P < 0.05/4).The venous phase IHU value yielded the highest performance with area under the curve of 0.893, 75.0% sensitivity, and 89.7% specificity for differentiating the low-risk thymomas from high-risk thymomas or thymic carcinoma at the cutoff value of 34.3 HU. When differentiating low-risk thymomas from thymic lymphoma, the venous phase IC value obtained the highest diagnostic efficacy with the area under the curve of 0.969, and sensitivity, specificity, and cutoff value were 87.5%, 100.0%, and 1.25 mg/mL, respectively.
Conclusions: Iodine quantification with DECT may be useful for differentiating the low-risk thymomas from other thymic tumors.