Differentiating malignant and benign necrotic lung lesions using kVp-switching dual-energy spectral computed tomography

Table 3 Comparison of quantitative parameters of necrosis in three phases and iodine concentrations of the solid portion in arterial phase and venous phase with dual-energy spectral computed tomography between groups

Quantitative parameters	NLC (n = 40)	NPMIL (n = 31)	p value
Necrosis
NCS
CT value at 70 keV (HU)	19.16 ± 9.63	15.14 ± 7.66	0.061^a
K_40–65 keV	0.31 ± 0.43	− 0.21 ± 0.32	< 0.001^a
Effective atomic number	7.63 ± 0.14	7.45 ± 0.13	< 0.001^a
AP
CT value at 70 keV (HU)	22.80 ± 9.00	19.28 ± 6.95	0.076^a
K_40–65 keV	0.29 ± 0.40	0.15 ± 0.34	0.043^b
Effective atomic number	7.65 ± 0.09	7.63 ± 0.09	0.119^b
VP
CT value at 70 keV (HU)	22.29 ± 7.98	19.13 ± 8.54	0.113^a
K_40–65 keV	0.34 ± 0.54	0.15 ± 0.38	0.021^b
Effective atomic number	7.69 ± 0.17	7.68 ± 0.13	0.423^b
Solid portion
IC in AP (mg/mL)	1.37 ± 0.63	1.41 ± 0.80	0.977 ^b
IC in VP (mg/mL)	1.48 ± 0.31	1.85 ± 1.01	< 0.001^b

NLC, necrotic lung cancer; NPMIL, necrotic pulmonary mass-like inflammatory lesion; CT, computed tomography; K_40–65 keV, the slope of the spectral curve from 40 to 65 keV; NCS, non-contrast-enhanced scanning; AP, arterial phase; VP, venous phase; IC, iodine concentration
^a Two-independent-samples Student’s t-test
^b Mann–Whitney U test

ISSN: 1471-2342