Diagnostic Performance of a Prototype Dual-energy Chest Imaging System

Purpose: To assess the performance of a Dual-Energy chest radiography system. Methods: A cohort of 129 patients was recruited from population referred for CT guided biopsy of a lung lesion. Digital radiography (DR) and Dual Energy (DE) images were acquired. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) tests were performed to evaluate performance of DE images compared to DR. Five chest radiologists scored images. Performance was analyzed for all cases pooled and sub groups based on gender, nodule size, density, location, and chest diameter. Results: There was no significant difference between DE and DR for all cases (p = 0.61). There was a significant advantage for DE imaging of small nodules, and nodules located in right-upper lobe. (p = 0.02 and 0.01) Conclusions: DE imaging demonstrated significant improvement in diagnosis of sub-centimeter lung nodules and lesions in the upper lung zones which are common characteristic of early stage lung malignancy.MAS