Clinical Application of Monochromatic Spectral CT Imaging for Portal
Vein and Inferior Vena Cava Image Improvement in Patients with Budd-
Chiari Syndrome
WU Yan, SU Lei, HOU Ping,
JIANG Yao-jun, LIU Jie,
GAO Jian-bo
Department of Radiology, the First
Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou
University, Zhengzhou Henan 450052,
China
Abstract：Objective To investigate the clinical effectiveness of application of monochromatic
spectral CT imaging for portal vein and inferior vena cava image improvement in patients with buddchiarissyndrome.
Methods Altogether 16 patients with budd-chiari syndrome were selected and scanned
by using GE Discovery CT machine to achieve the spectral CT images of the portal venous phase (PVP) and
the hepatic venous phase (HVP). Spectral CT images of 4 monochromatic energy level ( 40, 50, 60, 70 keV) with
60% ASIR were reconstructed for comparison. Regions-of-interest (ROIs) were placed in the portal vein (PV),
hepatic vein (HV), inferior vena cava (IVC) to measure CT value and image noise (SD). Signal-to-noise ratio
(SNR), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) and quantitative measurements of vessels were calculated. Image quality
for all groups was statistically compared. Results CNR of PV, HV and IVC in 40 keV and 50 keV data sets
were (15.13±11.39, 13.31±10.16), (6.79±7.40, 5.27±4.74) and (4.03±3.27, 3.24±2.74), respectively.
It was found that CNR of vessels in 40 keV and 50 keV was higher than those of other keV data sets.
There was statistical difference for CNR of vessels between monochromatic images and 140 kVp images.
Image quality of 50 keV with 60% ASIR was better than other lower monochromatic energy images.
Conclusion Monochromatic images of lower energy associated with ASIR reconstruction from spectral
CT imaging demonstrated the best vascular contrast for the portal vein (PV) and inferior vena cava (IVC)
in the patients with budd-chiari syndrome. 50 keV monochromatic images with 60% ASIR improved the
diagnostic ability of CTV (PV and IVC) in budd-chiari syndrome.
