Dual-energy ct material decomposition in pediatric thoracic oncology

Technical advances in CT have enabled implementation of dual-energy CT into routine clinical practice. By acquiring images at two different energy spectra, dual-energy CT enables material decomposition, allowing generation of material-and energy-specific images. Material-specific images include virtual nonenhanced images and iodine-specific images (iodine maps). Energy-specific images include virtual monoenergetic images. The reconstructed images can provide unique qualitative and quantitative information about tissue composition and contrast media distribution. In thoracic oncologic imaging, dual-energy CT provides advantages in characterization of thoracic malignancies and lung nodules, determination of extent of disease, and assessment of response to therapy. An especially important feature in children is that dual-energy CT does not come at a higher radiation exposure.