Differentiation of Adrenal Adenomas from Non-Adenomatous Lesions: Diagnostic Value of Unenhanced Spectral CT.

BACKGROUND

Differentiating adrenal adenomas from non-adenomatous lesions remains a critical challenge in the management of adrenal incidentalomas. Conventional unenhanced CT relies on attenuation thresholds of 10 HU and 20 HU, which present trade-offs between sensitivity and specificity.

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate the diagnostic performance of unenhanced Spectral CT using the attenuation difference between 40 keV and 140 keV virtual monoenergetic images for differentiating adrenal adenomas from non-adenomatous lesions.

METHODS

In this retrospective single-center study, 60 patients with adrenal lesions who underwent unenhanced dual-energy CT were included. Mean attenuation values were measured on conventional images and on virtual monoenergetic images at 40 keV and 140 keV. The spectral attenuation difference (Δ40-140 keV) was calculated. ROC analysis was performed to determine the optimal threshold and diagnostic performance. Additional analyses included DeLong comparison of correlated ROC curves and bootstrap resampling to estimate 95% confidence intervals for the area under the curve.

RESULTS

Forty-nine lesions were adenomas and eleven were non-adenomatous. The optimal threshold for Δ40-140 keV was -17 HU. When evaluated as a continuous variable, Δ40-140 keV yielded an area under the curve of 0.940 (95% confidence interval: 0.851-1.000), compared with 0.939 (95% confidence interval: 0.870-0.992) for conventional unenhanced attenuation. DeLong comparison showed no statistically significant difference between the two curves (p = 0.980). Diagnostic performance was as follows: HU ≤ 10 (AUC 0.816, diagnostic accuracy 0.70), HU ≤ 20 (AUC 0.883, diagnostic accuracy 0.87), and Δ40-140 keV ≤ -17 HU (AUC 0.940, diagnostic accuracy 0.90). The spectral attenuation difference demonstrated the highest overall diagnostic accuracy.

CONCLUSIONS

Unenhanced Spectral CT using Δ40-140 keV improves discrimination between adrenal adenomas and non-adenomatous lesions compared with conventional attenuation thresholds. This technique may reduce indeterminate findings and limit the need for additional imaging.