A spectral computed tomography imaging system (102) includes a radiation source (112) configured to emit x-ray radiation and a detector array (114) configured to detect x-ray radiation and generate spectral data. The spectral imaging system further includes a memory (134) configured to store a virtual non-contrast image enhancing module (136) that includes computer executable instructions including a neural network trained to produce image quality enhanced virtual non-contrast images. The neural network is trained with training spectral data and training non-contrast-enhanced images generatedfrom a non- contrast-enhanced scan. The spectral imaging system further includes a processor (132) configured to process the spectral data with the trained neural network to produce the image qualityenhanced virtual non-contrast images.
Image quality improved virtual non-contrast images generated by spectral computed tomography (CT) scanner