Preliminary differentiation of benign and malignant gastric wall thickening using dual-layer spectral-detector CT.

Background: Dual-layer spectral-detector computed tomography (DLCT) may have the potential to evaluate gastric wall thickening.

Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy of DLCT quantitative parameters in differentiating between benign and malignant thickening of the gastric wall.

Material and methods: A total of 58 patients with "gastric wall thickening" who underwent multi-phase abdominal enhanced DLCT scans were included in this study. Of these patients, 33 were malignant and 25 were benign. Parameters such as iodine concentration (IC), effective atomic number (Zeff), and attenuation of the lesions were measured during the arterial phase (AP) and venous phase (VP). Binary logistic regression was employed to calculate the combined prediction probabilities. The accuracy of the DLCT parameters was assessed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves.

Results: The values of IC, nIC, Zeff, normalized Zeff, and attenuation in the AP and VP were significantly higher (all P < 0.05) in the malignant group compared to the benign group. The ROC curves revealed that the IC, Zeff, and attenuation in the VP exhibited high diagnostic performance, with area under the ROC curve (AUC) values of 0.864, 0.862, and 0.840, respectively. The new combination of these three factors and gastric wall thickness had an AUC of 0.884, and the sensitivity and specificity were determined to be 81.8% and 92.0%, respectively.

Conclusion: Spectral CT parameters, particularly the combination of gastric wall thickness, attenuation, IC, and Zeff in VP, have value in distinguishing between benign and malignant gastric wall thickening.