The Application Value of Gemstone Spectral Imaging (GSI) Combined with an 80 mm Wide-body Detector in Head-neck CTA

This study aims to investigate the value of gemstone spectral imaging (GSI) combined with an 80 mm wide-body detector in head-neck CTA.

Ninety patients with head-neck CTA were prospectively selected and randomly divided into a control group and a test group, with 45 patients in each group. The control group was scanned conventionally. With a tube voltage of 100 kVp and detector width of 40 mm, a 70 ml contrast agent was injected at a flow rate of 5.0 ml/s. The test group used GSI. With a tube current fixed of 445 mAs and a detector width of 80 mm, the contrast agent was injected at a flow rate of 3.5 ml/s and 0.6 ml/kg body weight, and the 55 keV virtual monoenergetic images (VMIs) were automatically reconstructed. Finally, the target vessel CT values, background noise (BN), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), subjective scores, contrast agent dose, CT dose index volume (CTDIvol), and dose length product (DLP) were recorded. The DLP was converted to the effective dose (ED).

The target vessel CT values, BN, SNR, CNR, and subjective scores of the two groups were not statistically significant (all P > 0.05), and the image quality of both groups was the same and met the diagnostic requirements. The contrast agent dose and effective dose (ED) in the test group were approximately 44% and 26% lower than that of the control group, respectively (all P < 0.05).

In head-neck CTA examination, the Revolution CT GSI combined with an 80 mm wide-body detector can reduce the contrast agent dose and radiation dose while ensuring image quality.