Quantitative evaluation of bone marrow characteristics in occult and subtle rib fractures by spectral CT

Purpose The present study aimed to determine whether the water content change in the medullary cavity of occult rib fractures by spectral computed tomography (CT). Methods The material decomposition (MD) images were reconstructed using the water-hydroxyapatite basis material pairs from spectral CT. The water contents of the medullary cavity in subtle or occult rib fractures and the symmetrical sites of the contralateral ribs were measured, and their difference was calculated. The absolute value of the water content difference was compared to patients without trauma. An independent samples t -test was adopted to compare the consistency of the water content in the medullary cavity of the normal ribs. Intergroup and pairwise comparisons were applied to the difference in water content among the subtle/occult fractures and normal ribs, followed by receiver operating characteristic curve calculations. p 0.05) with a difference value of 8.05 ± 6.13 mg/cm 3 . The increased water content of fractured ribs was higher than that of normal ribs ( p