Purpose:

The dual-layer spectral detector CT (DSCT) has become an emerging imaging device in recent years, which can generate iodine density maps (ID), effective atomic number maps (Z-eff), and electron density maps (ED). The aim of this study was to explore the differential value of multi-parameters from DSCT for different pathological types of lung cancer.

Methods and Materials:

This study retrospectively included 51 patients who underwent enhanced examination using dual layer spectral CT (Spectral CT 7500, Philips Healthcare) and were confirmed as lung cancer by postoperative pathology at our hospital between May 2022 and February 2023. The patients were divided into three groups based on different pathological types of lesions, including 29 patients in the adenocarcinoma group (AD), 14 patients in the squamous cell carcinoma group (SCC), and 8 patients in the small cell lung cancer group (SCLC). Postprocessing software was used to delineate the region of interest (ROI) of the lesion and the lesion size, CT values, ID, Z-eff, ED, and ED/Z-eff ratio (ED/Z-eff) were measured in the lesion. The differences in parameters among the three groups of patients were compared through analysis of variance.

Result:

Analysis of variance revealed statistically significant differences (P<0.05) in the mean iodine density, mean Z-eff, Z-eff kurtosis, ED skewness and mean ED/Z-eff among the three groups, while traditional CT values, lesion size, and other parameters were not significantly different (P>0.05). Then, least significant difference (LSD) tests were used to compare pairwise pairs among the three groups of data. For the mean iodine density, there were statistically significant differences (P<0.05) between the AD patients and the SCC patients and between the AD patients and the SCLC patients. In terms of the mean Z-eff, Z-eff kurtosis, ED skewness and mean ED/Z-eff, there were statistically significant differences (P<0.05) between the AD and SC groups. There were no statistically significant differences in the other groups (P>0.05).

Conclusions:

Different types of lung cancer have significant differences in iodine absorption and tissue characteristics. Compared with traditional CT, DSCT has greater value in distinguishing lung cancer types.Multiparameter qualitative and quantitative analysis can be performed through DSCT-enhanced scanning, which can reflect the tissue composition, tissue activity, and metabolic status of patient lesions to some extent, providing more accurate imaging evidence for early diagnosis, treatment strategies, and prognosis prediction of tumor patients.