Dual-energy CT of acute bowel ischemia

Acute bowel ischemia is a condition with high mortality and requires rapid intervention to avoid catastrophic outcomes. Swift and accurate imaging diagnosis is essential because clinical findings are commonly nonspecific. Conventional contrast enhanced CT of the abdomen has been the imaging modality of choice to evaluate suspected acute bowel ischemia. However, subtlety of image findings and lack of non-contrast or arterial phase images can make correct diagnosis challenging. Dual-energy CT provides valuable information toward assessing bowel ischemia. Dual-energy CT exploits the differential X-ray attenuation at two different photon energy levels to characterize the composition of tissues and reveal the presence or absence of faint intravenous iodinated contrast to improve reader confidence in detecting subtle bowel wall enhancement. With the same underlying technique, virtual non-contrast images can help to show non-enhancing hyperdense hemorrhage of the bowel wall in intravenous contrast-enhanced scans without the need to acquire actual non-contrast scans. Dual-energy CT derived low photon energy (keV) virtual monoenergetic images emphasize iodine contrast and provide CT angiography-like images from portal venous phase scans to better evaluate abdominal arterial patency. In Summary, dual-energy CT aids diagnosing acute bowel ischemia in multiple ways, including improving visualization of the bowel wall and mesenteric vasculature, revealing intramural hemorrhage in contrast enhanced scans, or possibly reducing intravenous contrast dose.