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British Institute of Radiology, British Journal of Radiology, 1106(93), p. 20190701, 2020

DOI: 10.1259/bjr.20190701

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Evaluation of the liver with virtual non-contrast: single institution study in 149 patients undergoing TAVR planning

This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.
This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.

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Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate accuracy of virtual-non-contrast images (VNC) compared to true-unenhanced-images (TNC) for evaluation of liver attenuation acquired using spectral-detector CT (SDCT). Methods: 149 patients who underwent multiphase transcatheter-aortic-valve-replacement (TAVR) SDCT-examinations [unenhanced-chest (TNC), CT-angiography chest (CTA-chest, early arterial-phase) and abdomen (CTA-abdomen, additional early arterial-phase after a second injection of contrast media)] were retrospectively included. VNC of CTA-chest (VNC-chest) and CTA-abdomen (VNC-abdomen) were reconstructed and compared to TNC. Region of interest-based measurement of mean attenuation (Hounsfield unit, HU) was applied in the following regions: liver, spleen, abdominal aorta and paraspinal muscle. Results: VNC accuracy was high in the liver, spleen, abdominal aorta and muscle for abdomen-scanning. For the liver, average attenuation was 59.0 ± 9.1 HU for TNC and 72.6 ± 9.5 HU for CTA-abdomen. Liver attenuation in VNC-abdomen (59.1 ± 6.4 HU) was not significantly different from attenuation in TNC (p > 0.05). In contrast, VNC was less accurate for chest-scanning: Due to the protocol, in CTA-chest no contrast media was present in the liver parenchyma as indicated by the same attenuation in TNC (59.0 ± 9.1 HU) and CTA-chest (58.8 ± 8.9 HU, p > 0.05). Liver attenuation in VNC-chest (56.2 ± 6.4 HU, p < 0.05) was, however, significantly lower than in TNC and CTA-chest implying an artificial reduction of attenuation. Conclusion: VNC performed well in a large cohort of TAVR-examinations yielding equivalent mean attenuations to TNC; however, application of this technique might be limited when no or very little contrast media is present in parenchyma, more precisely in an early arterial-phase of the liver. Advances in knowledge: This study showed that VNC can be reliably applied in cardiac protocols when certain limitations are considered