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(2026) Limantoro | Ultra-low dose pediatric chest PCCT approaching chest radiograph doses
In this feasibility study, an ultra-low-dose pediatric chest PCCT protocol was optimized to Sn100 kVp, 2 mAs, pitch 1.5, achieving a phantom effective dose of 14 µSv. In clinical use, the median total effective dose was 11.6 µSv, close to the 8.2 µSv median dose of a single chest radiograph. The protocol was applied in 24…
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(2025) Opitz | First assessment of photon-counting CT for virtual bronchoscopic navigation
In 40 patients (20 PCCT vs 20 BMI- and sex-matched EID-CT), PCCT successfully provided the high-resolution datasets required for virtual bronchoscopic navigation (VBN) and could be transferred into the navigation system for procedural planning. PCCT achieved an approximately 5–6× radiation-dose reduction: CTDIvol 1.5 vs…
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(2024) Dettmer | Chest X-ray–dose PCCT changes diagnosis in suspected pneumonia
In 27 adults with suspected respiratory infection, an ultra-low-dose PCCT chest protocol achieved a mean effective dose of 0.11 ± 0.04 mSv, essentially matching the German reference dose for a two-view chest radiograph. Despite this very low exposure, PCCT provided substantially more diagnostic information than…
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(2026) Happe | Low-dose PCCT improves automated lung texture analysis for ILD
Automated Lung Texture Analysis (LTA) performed robustly on low-dose PCCT despite the algorithm having been trained on conventional EID-CT data. For detecting ILD, LTA achieved a higher AUC with PCCT than with EID-CT (0.846 vs. 0.772). PCCT showed consistently higher AUCs for individual ILD features, particularly…
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(2022) Decker | PCCT enables anemia detection from routine contrast-enhanced CT
This proof-of-concept study demonstrates that spectral PCCT data from routine contrast-enhanced oncologic staging examinations can be used to detect and quantify anemia by measuring blood-pool attenuation on virtual non-contrast (VNC) images. Mean blood-pool VNC attenuation showed a strong positive correlation with…
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(2026) Pannenbecker | UHR PCCT pulmonary angiography improves pulmonary artery visibility/confidence
Ultra-high-resolution (UHR) photon-counting CT pulmonary angiography significantly improved visualization of peripheral pulmonary arteries and increased radiologists' diagnostic confidence compared with state-of-the-art dual-energy EID-CT. UHR-PCD-CT achieved substantially higher pulmonary arterial enhancement (568–623 HU…
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(2026) Moeskes | PCCT vs V/Q-SPECT for lobar perfusion in CTEPH
The authors found strong agreement between PCCT-derived PBV maps and V/Q-SPECT for whole-lung and lobar perfusion, supporting PCCT as a feasible quantitative perfusion tool in CTEPH work-up. Best-practice implication: PCCT may enable combined assessment of pulmonary perfusion, vasculature, and parenchyma in one…
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(2026) Stammen | Contrast media reduction for CTPA using PCCT vs EID-CT
PCCT reduced iodine load by 26.7% and CTDIvol by 24.4% compared to highly individualized EID-CT protocols, confirming real-world dose efficiency even against optimized reference standards. Diagnostic image quality (IQ) remained equivalent, with no significant differences in attenuation or SNR and only a minor, clinically…
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(2022) Woeltjen | Low-Dose High-Resolution PCCT of the Lung: Radiation Dose and Image Quality
The study evaluates a low-dose high-resolution PCCT lung protocol in a clinical cohort, comparing it directly to standard energy-integrating CT under routine conditions. Image quality was significantly improved with PCCT, particularly when using quantum iterative reconstruction, which reduced noise and enhanced sharpness…
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(2025) Zhou | Low/ultralow-dose PCCT for pulmonary metastasis in MSK malignancy patients
Compared to conventional EID-CT, PCCT enabled a reduction in effective dose of around 90%. PCCT provided noticeably sharper delineation of lung nodules and masses. Overall image quality and visualization of lung nodules were superior with PCCT compared to standard CT. Access full publication Figure 4. Matched axial CT…
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(2023) Graafen | Optimization of the Reconstruction Settings for Low-Dose UHR PCCT of the Lungs
The study evaluates a low-dose ultra-high-resolution (UHR) PCCT lung protocol in a clinical cohort to determine optimal reconstruction settings for image quality. It demonstrates that image quality is primarily driven by reconstruction parameters, with a 1024 matrix, 0.4 mm slice thickness, sharp lung kernel (Bl64), and…
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(2023) Scharm | Regional Pulmonary Morphology and Function: PCCT Assessment
This study used a modified chest PCCT workflow with an inspiratory scan followed by an expiratory scan 5 minutes later after IV contrast administration. The protocol was designed to derive lung morphology, vasculature, perfusion, ventilation, and late contrast enhancement from one examination. In 166 of 196 patients, all…
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(2024) Pannenbecker | High-pitch Pulmonary Angio with Free-Breathing for Acute Pulmonary Embolism
The study demonstrates that ultra-high-pitch PCCT can enable reliable diagnosis of acute pulmonary embolism even under free-breathing conditions. Using a low contrast volume and fast acquisition, the protocol achieves superior image quality while simultaneously reducing radiation dose compared to conventional CT. The…
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Metastatic pulmonary adenocarcinoma – complicated by PE
Prof. Martine Rémy-Jardin, MD*, Ph.D.; Prof. Jacques Rémy, MD** * Department of Thoracic Imaging, University Centre of Lille, France ** Department of Radiology, Hospital Center of Valenciennes, France 2023-06-07 Download the pdf History A 51-year-old male patient, suffering from pulmonary adenocarcinoma with lymphangitic…
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Follow-up of an acute pulmonary embolism in an obese patient with an unknown patent foramen ovale
Prof. Martine Rémy-Jardin, MD*, Ph.D.; Prof. Jacques Rémy, MD** * Department of Thoracic Imaging, University Centre of Lille, France ** Department of Radiology, Hospital Center of Valenciennes, France May 5, 2023 Download the pdf History A 38-year-old female obese patient (165 cm height, 109 kg weight, BMI 40) suffered…
