Ultra-low-dose spectral-detector computed tomography for the accurate quantification of pulmonary nodules: an anthropomorphic chest phantom study.

Purpose: To assess the quantification accuracy of pulmonary nodules using virtual monoenergetic images (VMIs) derived from spectral-detector computed tomography (CT) under an ultra-low-dose scan protocol.

Methods: A chest phantom consisting of 12 pulmonary nodules was scanned using spectral-detector CT at 100 kVp/10 mAs, 100 kVp/20 mAs, 120 kVp/10 mAs, and 120 kVp/30 mAs. Each scanning protocol was repeated three times. Each CT scan was reconstructed utilizing filtered back projection, hybrid iterative reconstruction, iterative model reconstruction (IMR), and VMIs of 40-100 keV. The signal-to-noise ratio and air noise of images, absolute differences, and absolute percentage measurement errors (APEs) of the diameter, density, and volume of the four scan protocols and ten reconstruction images were compared.

Results: With each fixed reconstruction image, the four scanning protocols exhibited no significant differences in APEs for diameter and density (all > 0.05). Of the four scan protocols and ten reconstruction images, APEs for nodule volume had no significant differences (all > 0.05). At 100 kVp/10 mAs, APEs for density using IMR were the lowest (APE: 6.69), but no significant difference was detected between VMIs at 50 keV (APE: 11.69) and IMR ( = 0.666). In the subgroup analysis, at 100 kVp/10 mAs, there were no significant differences between VMIs at 50 keV and IMR in diameter and density (all > 0.05). The radiation dose at 100 kVp/10 mAs was reduced by 77.8% compared with that at 120 kVp/30 mAs.

Conclusion: Compared with IMR, reconstruction at 100 kVp/10 mAs and 50 keV provides a more accurate quantification of pulmonary nodules, and the radiation dose is reduced by 77.8% compared with that at 120 kVp/30 mAs, demonstrating great potential for ultra-low-dose spectral-detector CT.