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

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

Methods: 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).

Results: 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).

Conclusion: 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.