Šegota Ritoša Doris, Dodig Doris, Kovačić Slavica, Bartolović Nina, Brumini Ivan, Valković Zujić Petra, Jurković Slaven, Miletić Damir
Department of Medical Physics and Radiation Protection, Clinical Hospital Center Rijeka, Krešimirova 42, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia.
Department for Medical Physics and Biophysics, Faculty of Medicine Rijeka, Braće Branchetta 20, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia.
Diagnostics (Basel). 2025 Jan 14;15(2):180. doi: 10.3390/diagnostics15020180.
: This study aims to evaluate the impact of various weighting factors (WFs) on the quality of weighted average (WA) dual-energy computed tomography (DECT) non-contrast brain images and to determine the optimal WF value. Because they simulate standard CT images, 0.4-WA reconstructions are routinely used. : In the initial phase of the research, quantitative and qualitative analyses of WA DECT images of an anthropomorphic head phantom, utilizing WFs ranging from 0 to 1 in 0.1 increments, were conducted. Based on the phantom study findings, WFs of 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8 were chosen for patient analyses, which were identically carried out on 85 patients who underwent non-contrast head DECT. Three radiologists performed subjective phantom and patient analyses. : Quantitative phantom image analysis revealed the best gray-to-white matter contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) at the highest WFs and minimal noise artifacts at the lowest WF values. However, the WA reconstructions were deemed non-diagnostic by all three readers. Two readers found 0.6-WA patient reconstructions significantly superior to 0.4-WA images ( < 0.001), while reader 1 found them to be equally good ( = 0.871). All readers agreed that 0.8-WA images exhibited the lowest image quality. : In conclusion, 0.6-WA reconstructions demonstrated superior image quality over 0.4-WA and are recommended for routine non-contrast brain DECT.
本研究旨在评估各种加权因子（WFs）对加权平均（WA）双能量计算机断层扫描（DECT）非增强脑图像质量的影响，并确定最佳WF值。由于0.4-WA重建模拟标准CT图像，因此常被使用。在研究的初始阶段，对一个仿人头模的WA DECT图像进行了定量和定性分析，使用的WFs范围从0到1，增量为0.1。基于模体研究结果，选择0.4、0.6和0.8的WFs用于患者分析，对85例接受非增强头部DECT的患者进行了相同的分析。三位放射科医生进行了主观的模体和患者分析。定量模体图像分析显示，在最高WFs时灰质与白质的对比度噪声比（CNR）最佳，在最低WF值时噪声伪影最小。然而，所有三位读者都认为WA重建图像无法用于诊断。两位读者发现0.6-WA患者重建图像明显优于0.4-WA图像（<0.001），而读者1认为它们同样好（=0.871）。所有读者都认为0.8-WA图像的图像质量最低。总之，0.6-WA重建图像的质量优于0.4-WA，建议用于常规非增强脑DECT检查。
