The Value of Multi-slice Helical CT in the Diagnosis of Different Subtypes of Renal Cell Carcinoma

Objective: To evaluate MSCT features in the diagnosis of renal cell carcinoma. Methods: MSCT appearance of 44 cases with renal cell carcinoma confirmed by surgery and pathology was retrospectively analyzed. The density of the lesion and the adjacent normal renal cortex were calculated in unenhanced and enhanced phases respectively. The ratios of lesion/renal cortex enhancement were calculated for three phases. Results: CT attenuation in unenhanced scan was not statistically different between three subtypes. In cortical, nephrographic and delayed phase, CT attenuation and the ratios of lesion/renal cortex enhancement of clear cell carcinoma were higher than that of papillary and chromophobe renal cells respectively(P value was 0.000 in different phase). There was no statistically significant difference between CT attenuation of papillary carcinoma and that of chromophobe cell carcinoma in different enhanced phase(P value was 0.376, 0.315, 0.382 respectively). However, the ratios of lesion/renal cortex enhancement of chromophobe renal cells were higher than that of papillary renal cells carcinoma in cortical, nephrographic and delayed phase respectively(P value was 0.046, 0.031, 0.048 respectively). Conclusion: Dynamic enhanced CT scan is good for differentiating clear cell carcinoma from other subtypes, but it is hard to discriminate between atypical papillary carcinoma and chromophobe carcinoma.