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PURPOSE: To investigate whether dual-energy multidetector row computed tomographic (CT) imaging with iodine quantification is able to distinguish between clear cell and papillary renal cell carcinoma ( RCC renal cell carcinoma ) subtypes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this retrospective, HIPAA-compliant, institutional review board-approved study, 88 patients (57 men, 31 women) with diagnosis of either clear cell or papillary RCC renal cell carcinoma at pathologic analysis, who underwent contrast material-enhanced dual-energy nephrographic phase study between December 2007 and June 2013, were included. Five readers, blinded to pathologic diagnosis, independently evaluated all cases by determining the lesion iodine concentration on color-coded iodine maps. The receiving operating characteristic curve analysis was adopted to estimate the optimal threshold for discriminating between clear cell and papillary RCC renal cell carcinoma , and results were validated by using a leave-one-out cross-validation. Interobserver agreement was assessed by using an intraclass correlation coefficient. The correlation between tumor iodine concentration and tumor grade was investigated. RESULTS: A tumor iodine concentration of 0.9 mg/mL represented the optimal threshold to discriminate between clear cell and papillary RCC renal cell carcinoma , and it yielded the following: sensitivity, 98.2% (987 of 1005 95% confidence interval: 97.7%, 98.7%); specificity, 86.3% (272 of 315 95% confidence interval: 85.0%, 87.7%); positive predictive value, 95.8% (987 of 1030 95% confidence interval: 95.0%, 96.6%); negative predictive value, 93.7% (272 of 290 95% confidence interval: 92.8%, 94.7%); overall accuracy of 95.3% (1259 of 1320 95% confidence interval: 94.6%, 96.2%), with an area under the curve of 0.923 (95% confidence interval: 0.913, 0.933). An excellent agreement was found among the five readers in measured tumor iodine concentration (intraclass correlation coefficient, 0.9990 [95% confidence interval: 0. 9987, 0.9993). A significant correlation was found between tumor iodine concentration and tumor grade for both clear cell (τ = 0.85; P < .001) and papillary RCC renal cell carcinoma (τ = 0.53; P < .001). CONCLUSION: Dual-energy multidetector CT with iodine quantification can be used to distinguish between clear cell and papillary RCC renal cell carcinoma , and it provides insights regarding the tumor grade.
Mileto et al. (Wed,) studied this question.