title: Effects of dual-energy CT with non-linear blending on abdominal CT angiography.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine whether non-linear blending technique for arterial-phase dual-energy abdominal CT angiography (CTA) could improve image quality compared to the linear blending technique and conventional 120 kVp imaging.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study included 118 patients who had accepted dual-energy abdominal CTA in the arterial phase. They were assigned to Sn140/80 kVp protocol (protocol A, n = 40) if body mass index (BMI) < 25 or Sn140/100 kVp protocol (protocol B, n = 41) if BMI ≥ 25. Non-linear blending images and linear blending images with a weighting factor of 0.5 in each protocol were generated and compared with the conventional 120 kVp images (protocol C, n = 37). The abdominal vascular enhancements, image noise, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) and radiation dose were assessed. Statistical analysis was performed using one-way analysis of variance test, independent t test, Mann-Whitney U test, and Kruskal-Wallis test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean vascular attenuation, CNR, SNR and subjective image quality score for the non-linear blending images in each protocol were all higher compared to the corresponding linear blending images and 120 kVp images (p values ranging from < 0.001 to 0.007) except for when compared to non-linear blending images for protocol B and 120 kVp images in CNR and SNR. No significant differences were found in image noise among the three kinds of images and the same kind of images in different protocols, but the lowest radiation dose was shown in protocol A.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Non-linear blending technique of dual-energy CT can improve the image quality of arterial-phase abdominal CTA, especially with the Sn140/80 kVp scanning.
authors: Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, China.
authors: Sulan
authors: S
authors: Li
authors: Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, China.
authors: Chaoqin
authors: C
authors: Wang
authors: Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, China.
authors: Xiaochen
authors: X
authors: Jiang
authors: Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, China.
authors: Ge
authors: G
authors: Xu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000792:Angiography / Q000379:methods*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011856:Radiographic Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D011857:Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D011860:Radiography, Abdominal / Q000379:methods*; D059629:Signal-To-Noise Ratio; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Abdominal CT angiography; Dual-energy CT; Linear blending; Non-linear blending