Color-coded virtual non-calcium dual-energy CT for the depiction of bone marrow edema in patients with acute knee trauma: a multireader diagnostic accuracy study

To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of dual-energy computed tomography (CT) virtual non-calcium (VNCa) reconstructions for the depiction of traumatic knee bone marrow edema.

Fifty-seven patients (mean age, 50 years; range, 20–82 years) with acute knee trauma further divided into 30 women and 27 men, who had undergone third-generation dual-source dual-energy CT and 3-T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) within 7 days between January 2017 and May 2018, were retrospectively analyzed. Six radiologists, blinded to clinical and MRI information, independently analyzed conventional grayscale dual-energy CT series for fractures; after 8 weeks, readers evaluated color-coded VNCa reconstructions for the presence of bone marrow edema in six femoral and six tibial regions. Quantitative analysis of CT numbers on VNCa reconstructions was performed by a seventh radiologist. Two additional radiologists, blinded to clinical and CT information, analyzed MRI series in consensus to define the reference standard. Sensitivity, specificity, and the area under the curve (AUC) were the primary metrics of diagnostic accuracy.

MRI revealed 197 areas with bone marrow edema (91/342 femoral, 106/342 tibial). In the qualitative analysis, VNCa showed high overall sensitivity (1108/1182 [94%]) and specificity (2789/2922 [95%]) for depicting bone marrow edema. The AUC was 0.96 (femur) and 0.97 (tibia). A cutoff value of − 51 Hounsfield units (HU) provided high sensitivity (102/106 [96%]) and specificity (229/236 [97%]) for differentiating tibial bone marrow edema.

In both quantitative and qualitative analyses, dual-energy CT VNCa reconstructions yielded excellent diagnostic accuracy for depicting traumatic knee bone marrow edema compared with MRI.