Analysis of the clinical value of gemstone spectral computed tomography imaging in the preoperative assessment of colorectal cancer

Table 1 General data analysis of colorectal cancer patients with and without lymph node metastasis, n (%)

General data	Without lymph node metastasis (n = 108)	With lymph node metastasis (n = 92)	χ2/t	P value
Sex			0.136	0.712
Male	58 (53.70)	47 (51.09)
Female	50 (46.30)	45 (48.91)
Age (year), mean ± SD	60.31 ± 11.26	61.79 ± 8.55	1.032	0.303
Smoking history			2.170	0.141
Without	72 (66.67)	52 (56.52)
With	36 (33.33)	40 (43.48)
Alcoholism history			3.414	0.065
Without	79 (73.15)	56 (60.87)
With	29 (26.85)	36 (39.13)
Family medical history			0.545	0.461
Without	86 (79.63)	77 (83.70)
With	22 (20.37)	15 (16.30)

Table 2 Gemstone spectral computed tomography imaging diagnosis of lymph node metastasis in colorectal cancer

GSI	Pathological staging		Total
	Without Lymph node metastasis	With lymph node metastasis
Without lymph node metastasis	100	13	113
With lymph node metastasis	8	79	87
Total	108	92	200

GSI: Gemstone spectral computed tomography imaging.

Table 3 Short diameter of the maximum cross-sectional area of metastatic and non-metastatic lymph nodes, mean ± SD

Short diameter of the largest section (cm)	Metastatic lymph nodes (n = 150)	Non-metastatic lymph nodes (n = 115)	t	P value
Axial short diameter	1.25 ± 0.70	0.94 ± 0.33	4.389	< 0.001
Sagittal short diameter	1.17 ± 0.58	0.80 ± 0.20	6.547	< 0.001
Coronal short diameter	1.17 ± 0.62	0.86 ± 0.28	4.985	< 0.001

Table 4 Morphological characteristics of metastatic and non-metastatic lymph nodes, n (%)

Morphological characteristics		Metastatic lymph nodes (n = 150)	Non-metastatic lymph nodes (n = 115)	χ2	P value
Margin	Ill-defined	92 (61.33)	47 (40.87)	10.930	< 0.001
	Well-defined	58 (38.67)	68 (59.13)
Aggregation	With	54 (36.00)	26 (22.61)	5.539	0.019
	Without	96 (64.00)	89 (77.39)
Enhancement	Uneven	100 (66.67)	55 (47.83)	9.517	0.002
	Uniform	50 (33.33)	60 (52.17)

Table 5 Energy spectrum parameters of metastatic and non-metastatic lymph nodes in arterial and venous phases, mean ± SD

Energy spectrum parameters		Metastatic lymph nodes (n = 150)	Non-metastatic lymph nodes (n = 115)	t	P value
IC (100 μg/cm3)	Arterial phase	15.71 ± 5.92	27.00 ± 8.89	12.383	< 0.001
	Venous phase	20.90 ± 8.59	33.93 ± 12.05	10.272	< 0.001
NIC	Arterial phase	0.16 ± 0.07	0.28 ± 0.11	10.810	< 0.001
	Venous phase	0.44 ± 0.20	0.48 ± 0.14	1.828	0.069
λHU	Arterial phase	2.20 ± 0.68	3.41 ± 1.25	10.073	< 0.001
	Venous phase	2.40 ± 1.05	3.23 ± 1.13	6.170	< 0.001

IC: Iodine concentration; NIC: Normalized iodine concentration; λ_HU: The slope of the spectral curve.

Table 6 Diagnostic efficacy of gemstone spectral computed tomography imaging-related indicators via receiver operating characteristic curve analysis

Indicators	AUC	P value	95%CI	Threshold	Sensitivity	Specificity
Axial short diameter	0.631	< 0.001	0.564-0.699	1.28 cm	83.48%	48.00%
Sagittal short diameter	0.681	< 0.001	0.615-0.746	1.14 cm	95.65%	48.67%
Coronal short diameter	0.659	< 0.001	0.592-0.725	1.15 cm	86.09%	51.33%
IC in arterial phase	0.862	< 0.001	0.817-0.908	21.50 100 μg/cm3	72.17%	84.00%
IC in venous phase	0.808	< 0.001	0.756-0.861	27.50 100 μg/cm3	67.83%	80.67%
NIC in arterial phase	0.831	< 0.001	0.780-0.882	0.22	74.78%	80.00%
λHU in arterial phase	0.801	< 0.001	0.742-0.860	2.99	69.57%	90.00%
λHU in venous phase	0.706	< 0.001	0.644-0.768	2.87	62.61%	67.33%

CI: Confidence interval; AUC: Area under the curve; IC: Iodine concentration; NIC: Normalized iodine concentration; λ_HU: The slope of the spectral curve.