Improved Pulmonary Artery Evaluation Using High-Pitch Photon-Counting CT Compared to High-Pitch Conventional or Routine-Pitch Conventional Dual-Energy CT.

Objective: Pulmonary CT angiography (CTA) to detect pulmonary emboli can be performed using conventional dual-source CT with single-energy acquisition at high-pitch (high-pitch conventional CT), which minimizes motion artifacts, or routine-pitch, dual-energy acquisitions (routine-pitch conventional DECT), which maximize iodine signal. We compared iodine signal, radiation dose, and motion artifacts of pulmonary CTA between these conventional CT modalities and dual-source photon-counting detector CT with high-pitch, multienergy acquisitions (high-pitch photon-counting CT).

Methods: Consecutive clinically indicated pulmonary CTA exams were collected.