Evaluation of the best single-energy scanning in energy spectrum CT in lower extremity arteriography.

The present study aimed to apply the best single-energy (SE) scanning in energy spectrum computed tomography (CT) to evaluate the usefulness of lower extremity arterial angiography imaging in patients with lower extremity arterial occlusive disease. A total of 64 patients diagnosed with lower extremity arterial occlusive disease were randomly selected and divided into either the experimental group (n=32) or the control group (n=32). The two treatment groups were scanned for lower extremity arteriography using the best SE scanning mode of energy spectrum CT Gemstone imaging (GSI) and mixed energy scanning mode of multi-slice helical CT (MSCT). The CT images, image noise, contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) and quality scores of the images of lower extremity arteries between the two groups were compared. Image quality of the two experimental groups were independently evaluated by two imaging diagnostic physicians. The CT scores and CNR of the lower extremity arteries were significantly higher in the experimental group compared with the control group (P<0.01). No statistically significant differences in the background noise between the two groups were observed (P<0.05). The image quality scores of two groups, with the differences between the two diagnosticians, were found to be statistically significant (P<0.01). In the lower extremity arterial angiography, the image quality of the best SE in the CT GSI scanning mode was observed to be superior to that taken using MSCT mixed energy scanning mode.