Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Sep 14, 2015; 21(34): 9993-9998
Published online Sep 14, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i34.9993
Detection of gallbladder stones by dual-energy spectral computed tomography imaging
An-Liang Chen, Ai-Lian Liu, Sheng Wang, Jing-Hong Liu, Ye Ju, Mei-Yu Sun, Yi-Jun Liu
An-Liang Chen, Ai-Lian Liu, Sheng Wang, Jing-Hong Liu, Ye Ju, Mei-Yu Sun, Yi-Jun Liu, Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University, Dalian 116011, Liaoning Province, China
Author contributions: Chen AL, Liu AL, and Wang S designed the research; Chen AL, Wang S, Ju Y, and Liu YJ performed the research; Liu JH and Sun MY analyzed the data; Chen AL, Liu AL, and Wang S wrote the paper; all authors have read and approved the final version to be published.
Institutional review board statement: This retrospective study was approved by the Ethics Committee in The First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There is no conflict of interest in this study.
Data sharing statement: Technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset available from the corresponding author at cjr.liuailian@vip.163.com. No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Ai-Lian Liu, PhD, Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University, No. 222 Zhongshan Road, Dalian 116011, Liaoning Province, China. cjr.liuailian@vip.163.com
Telephone: +86-411-83635963 Fax: +86-411-83622844
Received: March 25, 2015
Peer-review started: March 27, 2015
First decision: May 18, 2015
Revised: June 2, 2015
Accepted: June 26, 2015
Article in press: June 26, 2015
Published online: September 14, 2015
Core Tip

Core tip: In traditional computed tomography (CT), gallbladder stones are indicated directly by high-density or low-density stones and indirectly by dilation of the intrahepatic biliary duct, left and right hepatic ducts, biliary duct and gallbladder. However, it is difficult to diagnose iso-density gallbladder stones, because gallbladder stones and bile are difficultly distinguished by traditional CT due to a same density. The development of spectral imaging recoups the defects of traditional CT in the diagnosis of iso-density stones. In spectral imaging, base substance images and low keV images are both promising to improve the detection rate of gallbladder stones; they provide a new approach for the differential diagnosis of gallbladder stones, and the reliable information for the clinical treatment of gallbladder stones.