Evaluation of peripheral pulmonary arteries at 80 kV and at 140 kV: dual-energy computed tomography assessment in 51 patients.
OBJECTIVE
To compare peripheral pulmonary artery image quality at 80 kVp and 140 kVp in the same patients.


METHODS
Image quality of third-, fourth- and fifth-order arteries was assessed at 80 kV and 140 kV on 1-mm-thick transverse scans, generated from dual-source computed tomography (CT) acquisitions.


RESULTS
The mean level of enhancement was significantly higher at 80 kV compared with 140 kV for the third-, fourth-, and fifth-order arteries (P < 0.0001). Despite a higher noise level at 80 kV (P < 0.0001), the signal-to-noise ratio and contrast-to-noise ratio were significantly higher at 80 kV than at 140 kV at the level of third-, fourth-, and fifth-order arteries (P < 0.0001). The mean vascular attenuation, mean signal-to-noise ratio and contrast-to-noise ratio for peripheral arteries were significantly superior at 80 kV in the 3 body mass index categories (P < 0.005).


CONCLUSIONS
Eighty-kilovolt protocols significantly improve the image quality of peripheral pulmonary arteries on CT angiograms of the chest.
Gorgos
Andrei
A
Department of Thoracic Imaging, Hospital Calmette, Lille, France.
Remy-Jardin
Martine
M
Duhamel
Alain
A
Faivre
Jean-Baptiste
JB
Tacelli
Nunzia
N
Delannoy
Valérie
V
Remy
Jacques
J
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015992:Body Mass Index; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011651:Pulmonary Artery / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D011857:Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*