Comparison of dynamic and spiral CT for imaging the glottic larynx.
OBJECTIVE
Our goal was to prospectively compare dynamic CT (DCT) and spiral CT (SCT) for evaluating patients with suspected abnormalities of the glottic region and correlate the observed differences between the two techniques with phantom measurements.


METHODS
Thirty-one patients suspected of having laryngeal abnormalities underwent DCT and SCT. The studies were evaluated by two head and neck radiologists for lesion detection, visualization of the paraglottic fat planes (PGFPs), motion artifact, respiratory misregistration, and overall image quality. Slice sensitivity profile (SSP) and image noise were measured for DCT and SCT for the imaging parameters used in this study.


RESULTS
Artifacts due to motion and respiratory misregistration were reduced with SCT compared with DCT. Laryngeal abnormalities and the adjacent PGFPs were better visualized with DCT than SCT. With use of similar imaging parameters, SSP and image noise were both increased with SCT compared with DCT.


CONCLUSIONS
SCT produces high quality images of the larynx with less motion and respiratory misregistration artifacts than DCT. DCT allows better visualization of lesions and subtle anatomic features of the glottic region. SCT may substitute for DCT in laryngeal imaging.
Department of Radiology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill 27599-7510, USA.
S K
SK
Mukherji
M
M
Castillo
W
W
Huda
J
J
Suojanen
P
P
Kubilis
R P
RP
Tart
G
G
Dhillon
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D005931:Glottis; D006801:Humans; D007818:Laryngeal Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008961:Models, Structural; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed