Iodine concentration, HU accuracy, and metal artifacts evaluation on second-generation dual-layer spectral detector CT images with metal implants: a phantom study

Background: Metal implants may affect the image quality, iodine concentration (IC), and CT Hounsfield unit (HU) quantification accuracy. Purpose: To investigate the quantitative accuracy of IC and HU from dual-layer spectral detector (DLCT) in the presence of metal artifacts. Material and Methods: An experimental cylindrical phantom containing eight iodine inserts and two metal inserts was designed. The phantom underwent scanning at three radiation dose levels and two tube voltage settings. A set of conventional images (CIs), virtual monoenergetic images (VMIs), and iodine concentration maps (ICMs) were generated and measured for all the eight iodine inserts. Quantitative indicators of mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), artifact index (AI), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and standard deviation (SD) on CIs and VMIs were calculated for IC and HU. Subjective score evaluation was also conducted. Results: The MAPEiodine values of all regions of interest across different scanning configurations were all <5%. Almost all APEiodine values were <5%, indicating that metal artifacts had little impact on IC measurements. When the tube voltage was fixed, the SD value of attenuation decreased with the increase of the tube current; this is also true when the tube current was fixed. The middle energy reconstructions seemed to give a good balance between reducing artifacts and improving contrast. Conclusion: VMIs from DLCT can reduce metal artifacts, the accuracy of IC quantification is not sensitive to imaging parameters. In summary, metal implants exhibit minimal impact on image quality and IC quantification accuracy in reconstructed images from DLCT.