Photon-counting detector CT showed higher myocardial late iodine enhancement contrast-to-noise ratio (4.2 vs 2.6), better image quality, and 80.1% vs 49.4% sensitivity than energy-integrating CT.
Does Photon-counting detector (PCD) CT improve image quality metrics for evaluation of myocardial late iodine enhancement compared to Energy-integrating detector (EID) CT in patients undergoing preprocedural evaluation for ventricular ablation?
Photon-counting detector CT provides superior image quality and higher sensitivity for detecting myocardial late iodine enhancement compared to conventional energy-integrating detector CT.
Purpose To compare photon-counting detector (PCD) CT and energy-integrating detector (EID) CT for the evaluation of myocardial late iodine enhancement (LIE), a CT marker of myocardial fibrosis. Materials and Methods This retrospective cohort study included patients undergoing preprocedural evaluation for ventricular ablation from April 2022 to March 2024. Quantitative region of interest measurements and qualitative Likert scale ratings were compared between modalities. Primary outcome metrics included signal intensity ratio, signal-to-noise ratio, and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR). A secondary analysis in a subset of 51 patients with MRI as the reference evaluated sensitivity and balanced accuracy relative to late gadolinium enhancement. Results A total of 150 patients (74 PCD CT, 76 EID CT) were included. PCD CT demonstrated higher CNR for both LIE to myocardium (4.2 IQR, 1.7 vs 2.6 IQR, 1.5; P P = .001) compared with EID CT. Mean qualitative image quality scores were higher for PCD CT than for EID CT (3.1 IQR, 0.8 vs 2.5 IQR, 0.8; P P = .04) and photon starvation (13.3% vs 32.9%; P = .008). In the subset of patients with MRI as a reference, per-segment sensitivity (80.1% vs 49.4%) and balanced accuracy (86.3% vs 72.9%; P Keywords: CT-Photon Counting, CT-Angiography, Cardiac Supplemental material is available online for this article. © RSNA, 2026.
Chamberlin et al. (2026) studied this question. Photon-counting detector CT showed higher myocardial late iodine enhancement contrast-to-noise ratio (4.2 vs 2.6), better image quality, and 80.1% vs 49.4% sensitivity than energy-integrating CT.