unenhanced

Unenhanced is an adjective meaning not enhanced; something that has not been improved, augmented, or made more detectable by an enhancement process. The term is used in various fields, most commonly in medical imaging, where it refers to studies performed without contrast agents. In this sense, an unenhanced study provides a baseline appearance of tissues or structures.

In radiology, unenhanced or non-contrast imaging describes scans acquired without intravenous or oral contrast media. Examples include unenhanced CT or unenhanced MRI. Such studies are useful for assessing calcifications, hemorrhage, bone integrity, or for patients who cannot receive contrast. They are often compared with contrast-enhanced studies to determine whether enhancement reveals pathology such as tumors or inflammatory lesions.

In other contexts, unenhanced can describe content that has not been subjected to post-processing, digital enhancement, or filtering. For example, an unenhanced photograph or video frame may appear with minimal artificial sharpening, saturation, or remapping of dynamic range, in contrast to a processed or enhanced version. The term is less common outside imaging and data analysis.

Etymology-wise, unenhanced is formed from the prefix un- meaning not, and enhanced, the past participle of enhance. In practice, the spelling unenhanced is standard in medical literature, with non-contrast as a common synonym in imaging reports.