Fengdan Wang 1 , Yan Zhang 1 , Huadan Xue 1 , Wei Han 2 , Xianda Yang 3 , Zhengyu Jin 4 , Richard Zwar 5 Show Affiliations »
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Spinal fusion surgery is an important procedure for treating spinal diseases and computed tomography (CT) is a critical tool for postoperative evaluation. However, CT image quality is considerably impaired by metal artifacts and image noise. PURPOSE: To explore whether metal artifacts and image noise can be reduced by combining two technologies, adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction (ASIR) and monochromatic imaging generated by gemstone spectral imaging (GSI) dual-energy CT. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 51 patients with 318 spinal pedicle screws were prospectively scanned by dual-energy CT using fast kV-switching GSI between 80 and 140 kVp. Monochromatic GSI images at 110 keV were reconstructed either without or with various levels of ASIR (30%, 50%, 70%, and 100%). The quality of five sets of images was objectively and subjectively assessed. RESULTS: With objective image quality assessment, metal artifacts decreased when increasing levels of ASIR were applied (P < 0.001). Moreover, adding ASIR to GSI also decreased image noise (P < 0.001) and improved the signal-to-noise ratio (P < 0.001). The subjective image quality analysis showed good inter-reader concordance, with intra-class correlation coefficients between 0.89 and 0.99. The visualization of peri-implant soft tissue was improved at higher ASIR levels (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Combined use of ASIR and GSI decreased image noise and improved image quality in post-spinal fusion CT scans. Optimal results were achieved with ASIR levels ≥70%. © The Foundation Acta Radiologica 2016.
BACKGROUND: Spinal fusion surgery is an important procedure for treating spinal diseases and computed tomography (CT) is a critical tool for postoperative evaluation. However, CT image quality is considerably impaired by metal artifacts and image noise. PURPOSE: To explore whether metal artifacts and image noise can be reduced by combining two technologies, adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction (ASIR ) and monochromatic imaging generated by gemstone spectral imaging (GSI ) dual-energy CT. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 51 patients with 318 spinal pedicle screws were prospectively scanned by dual-energy CT using fast kV-switching GSI between 80 and 140 kVp. Monochromatic GSI images at 110 keV were reconstructed either without or with various levels of ASIR (30%, 50%, 70%, and 100%). The quality of five sets of images was objectively and subjectively assessed. RESULTS: With objective image quality assessment, metal artifacts decreased when increasing levels of ASIR were applied (P < 0.001). Moreover, adding ASIR to GSI also decreased image noise (P < 0.001) and improved the signal-to-noise ratio (P < 0.001). The subjective image quality analysis showed good inter-reader concordance, with intra-class correlation coefficients between 0.89 and 0.99. The visualization of peri-implant soft tissue was improved at higher ASIR levels (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Combined use of ASIR and GSI decreased image noise and improved image quality in post-spinal fusion CT scans. Optimal results were achieved with ASIR levels ≥70%. © The Foundation Acta Radiologica 2016.
Entities: Chemical
Disease
Species
Keywords:
Image noise; dual-energy computed tomography; iterative reconstruction; metal artifacts
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Year: 2016
PMID： 26917784 DOI： 10.1177/0284185116631182
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Acta Radiol ISSN： 0284-1851 Impact factor: 1.990