Illegal intra-corporeal packets: can dual energy CT be used for the evaluation of cocaine concentration? A cross sectional study

Table 1 Radiological analyses of packets cocaine content. Means, standard deviations (SD), and correlations between cocaine content, measures of radiologic density (HU) and effective atomic number Z(eff), in 54 drug containers

Variable	Mean (standard deviation)	Pearson r	P value
Cocaine content (%)	36.8 (15.4)	–	–
HU low dose CT	105.4 (94.9)	0.25	0.064
Z(eff)	8.71 (0.82)	0.56	<0.001
HU 40 keV	236.7 (174.3)	0.42	0.001
HU 140 keV	73.3 (82.5)	−0.01	0.95
∆HU^a	163.4 (130.8)	0.57	<0.001

^a∆HU = difference between attenuation at 40 keV and the corresponding 140 keV value

ISSN: 1471-2342