Spectral CT Imaging In The Differential Diagnosis Of Malignant Thymoma And Mediastinal Lymphoma

Objective To investigate the value of spectral CT features in the differentiation diagnosis of malignant thymoma and mediastinal lymphoma.Methods The imaging features of germstone spectral CT were analysed ratrospectively including the malignant thymoma20cases and mediastinal lymphoma15cases confirmed by pathology after operation or biopsy. The unenhanced and enhanced CT attenuation values of different KeV levels (11sets,40-140Kev,10keV step), the spectrum curve slope and the iodine and water contents of these tumors were measured and the results were compared between those two groups. All results were analyzed with ANOVA and t test.Results The unenhanced CT attenuation values of malignant thymoma was obviously lower at the40-50KeV energy level and was significantly higher at the90-140KeV energy levels than that of mediastinal lymphoma. The enhanced CT attenuation values of malignant thymoma was higher at the40-100KeV energy level than that of mediastinal lymphoma.The spectrum curve slope (0.216±0.06) was significantly lower than that of Mediastinal Lymphoma Group (0.357±0.07), the difference was statistically significant (t=2.681, p=0.012). After enhancement both the iodine and water content (1.75±0.53) g/L,(1042.38±5.02) g/L of malignant thymoma group was significantly higher than that of Mediastinal Lymphoma Group (1.34±0.19) g/L,(1036.50±7.08) g/L.Conclusion Distinct characteristics could be found on the solid areas of malignant thymoma and mediastinal lymphoma by spectral CT imaging. By CT spectral analysis, the differential diagnosis of those two lesions might be relatively accurate. CT spectral imaging technology is simple, and can be widely used in clinical.