Application of dual-energy computed tomography for detecting uric acid deposition in patients with gout / 中国医学科学院学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To assess the value of dual energy computed tomography (DECT) for the detection of uric acid (UA) deposition in patients with gout.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A total of 37 patients with tophaceous gout (including 8 crystal-proven cases) and 10 control patients (5 with unknown arthropathy, 3 with rheumatoid arthritis, and 2 with osteoarthritis) were included. DECT was performed for all peripheral joints (wrists, hands, elbows, knees, ankles and feet) . Color coding was used to display the localization of UA deposition. Images were reviewed independently by two trained radiologists.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>With DECT, patients with gout were found to have UA deposits in hands and wrists 46% (17/37) , elbows 16% (6/37) , knees 27% (10/37) , ankles and feet 89% (33/37) . No UA deposit was observed in all 10 control patients (P=0.000) . Among the 37 patients with gout, the number of UA deposition sites detected by DECT (n=297) was 2.25 times of that detected by physical examinations (n=132) (P=0.000) .</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>DECT allows the visualization of UA deposition in gouty arthropathy. Even subclinical disease can be delineated with this technique. However, the accuracy of DECT requires further investigations.</p>

Features of eight segments of liver perfusion with the second generation dual-source computed tomography / 中国医学科学院学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the features of eight segments of liver perfusion with the second generation dual-source computed tomography (DSCT) .</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Totally 15 patients with pancreatic endocrine diseases underwent abdominal CT perfusion with the second generation DSCT. The liver perfusion images were then transferred to workstation, and perfusion parameters were calculated, and then the artery liver perfusion (ALp) , portal-vein liver perfusion (pVp) , and hepatic perfusion index (HpI) of the eight hepatic segments were calculated.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>ALp was significantly different between segments 3, 4 and segments 5-8 (P<0.05) . pVp was significantly different between segments 2 and segments 6, 7 (P<0.05) . pVp and HpI were significantly different between segment 3 and segments 5-8 (P<0.05,P<0.01) .</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The second generation DSCT can be used to evaluate the perfusion conditions in all eight hepatic segments. The perfusion differs among eight segments of liver, which may be related with the anatomy of the liver vessels and the position of DSCT scanning. Its clinical significance needs further research.</p>