Simon Lennartz publishes papers on Dual-Energy CT-derived Iodine Maps

The Else Kröner Forschungskolleg Cologne fellow Simon Lennartz has published his two papers in Radiology and in Cancer imaging.

Dual-Energy CT-derived Iodine Maps: Use in Assessing Pleural Carcinomatosis.

Purpose To evaluate the use of spectral CT for differentiation between noncalcified benign pleural lesions and pleural carcinomatosis. Materials and Methods In this retrospective study, patients who underwent contrast agent-enhanced late venous phase spectral CT of the chest between June 1, 2016, and July 1, 2018 with histopathologic and/or imaging confirmation of noncalcified pleural lesions were evaluated. Conventional images, iodine overlay (IO) images, and virtual monoenergetic images at 40 keV (hereafter, VMI40keV) were reconstructed from contrast-enhanced spectral chest CT. Four blinded radiologists determined lesion presence and indicated lesion conspicuity and diagnostic certainty. Hounsfield unit attenuation from conventional images and iodine concentration (IC) (in milligrams per milliliter) from IO images were determined. Area under the receiver operating characteristics curve determined thresholds for quantitative lesion differentiation and cutoff values were validated in an independent data set. Results Eighty-four patients were included (mean age, 66.2 years; 54 men and 30 women; 44 patients with cancer with confirmed pleural carcinomatosis and 40 patients with benign pleural lesions). The area under the receiver operating characteristics curve for IC was greater than that of conventional Hounsfield units (0.96 vs 0.91; P ≤ .05, respectively). The optimal IC threshold was 1.3 mg/mL, with comparable sensitivity and specificity when applied to the test data set. The sensitivities to depict pleural carcinomatosis with spectral reconstructions versus conventional CT were 96% (199 of 208) and 83% (172 of 208), respectively, with specificities of 84% (161 of 192) and 63% (120 of 192), respectively (P ≤ .001 each). Conclusion Compared with conventional images, spectral CT with iodine maps improved both quantitative and qualitative determination of pleural carcinomatosis versus noncalcified benign pleural lesions. © RSNA, 2019 See also the editorial by K. S. Lee and H. Y. Lee.

Dual-Energy CT-derived Iodine Maps: Use in Assessing Pleural Carcinomatosis.
Lennartz S, Le Blanc M, Zopfs D, Große Hokamp N, Abdullayev N, Laukamp KR, Haneder S, Borggrefe J, Maintz D, Persigehl T. Radiology. 2019 Mar;290(3):796-804. doi: 10.1148/radiol.2018181567. Epub 2019 Jan 15.PMID: 30644812. Impact Factor: 7.6

Diagnostic value of spectral reconstructions in detecting incidental skeletal muscle metastases in CT staging examinations.

BACKGROUND: To investigate if iodine density overlay maps (IDO) and virtual monoenergetic images at 40 keV (VMI40keV) acquired from spectral detector computed tomography (SDCT) can improve detection of incidental skeletal muscle metastases in whole-body CT staging examinations compared to conventional images.

METHODS: In total, 40 consecutive cancer patients who underwent clinically-indicated, contrast-enhanced, oncologic staging SDCT were included at this retrospective study: 16 patients with n = 108 skeletal muscle metastases confirmed by prior or follow-up CT, 18F-FDG-PET, MRI or histopathology, and a control group of 24 patients without metastases. Four independent readers performed blinded, randomized visual detection of skeletal muscle metastases in conventional images, IDO and VMI40keV, indicating diagnostic certainty for each lesion on a 5-point Likert scale. Quantitatively, ROI-based measurements of attenuation (HU) in conventional images and VMI40keV and iodine concentration in IDO were conducted. CNR was calculated and receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis of quantitative parameters was performed.

RESULTS: Regarding subjective assessment, IDO (63.2 (58.5-67.8) %) and VMI40keV (54.4 (49.6-59.2) %) showed an increased sensitivity for skeletal muscle metastases compared to conventional images (39.8 (35.2-44.6) %). Specificity was comparable in VMI40keV (69.8 (63.2-75.8) %) and conventional images (69.2 (60.6-76.9) %), while in IDO, it was moderately increased to 74.2 (65.3-78.4) %. Quantitative image analysis revealed that CNR of skeletal muscle metastases to circumjacent muscle was more than doubled in VMI40keV (25.8 ± 11.1) compared to conventional images (10.0 ± 5.3, p ≤ 0.001). Iodine concentration obtained from IDO and HU acquired from VMI40kev (AUC = 0.98 each) were superior to HU attenuation in conventional images (AUC = 0.94) regarding differentiation between healthy and metastatic muscular tissue (p ≤ 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: IDO and VMI40keV provided by SDCT improve diagnostic accuracy in the assessment of incidental skeletal muscle metastases compared to conventional CT.

KEYWORDS: Dual energy computed tomography; Iodine maps; Iodine quantification; Oncologic imaging; Skeletal muscle metastases

Diagnostic value of spectral reconstructions in detecting incidental skeletal muscle metastases in CT staging examinations.Lennartz S, Große Hokamp N, Abdullayev N, Le Blanc M, Iuga AI, Bratke G, Zopfs D, Maintz D, Borggrefe J, Persigehl T. Cancer Imaging. 2019 Jul 17;19(1):50. doi: 10.1186/s40644-019-0235-3.PMID: 31315666, Impact Factor: 3,1

 

Dr. Simon Lennatz, Foto:Uniklinik Köln

Priv.-Doz. Dr. Thorsten Persigehl, Foto: Uniklinik Köln