Effectiveness of one-shot dual-energy subtraction chest radiography with flat-panel detector in distinguishing between calcified and non-calcified nodules.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the added value of the soft tissue image obtained by the one-shot dual-energy subtraction (DES) method using a flat-panel detector compared with the standard image alone in distinguishing calcified from non-calcified nodules on chest radiographs. We evaluated 155 nodules (48 calcified and 107 non-calcified) in 139 patients. Five radiologists (readers 1 - 5) with 26, 14, 8, 6 and 3 years of experience, respectively, evaluated whether the nodules were calcified using chest radiography.