TY  - JOUR
A1  - Kaup, Moritz
A1  - Gruber-Rouh, Tatjana
A1  - Scholtz, Jan-Erik
A1  - Albrecht, Moritz Hans Ernst
A1  - Bucher, Andreas
A1  - Frellesen, Claudia
A1  - Vogl, Thomas J.
A1  - Beeres, Martin
T1  - Low-dose CT pulmonary angiography on a 15-year-old CT scanner : a feasibility study
T2  - Acta radiologica open
N2  - Background: Computed tomography (CT) low-dose (LD) imaging is used to lower radiation exposure, especially in vascular imaging; in current literature, this is mostly on latest generation high-end CT systems.
Purpose: To evaluate the effects of reduced tube current on objective and subjective image quality of a 15-year-old 16-slice CT system for pulmonary angiography (CTPA).
Material and Methods: CTPA scans from 60 prospectively randomized patients (28 men, 32 women) were examined in this study on a 15-year-old 16-slice CT scanner system. Standard CT (SD) settings were 100 kV and 150 mAs, LD settings were 100 kV and 50 mAs. Attenuation of the pulmonary trunk, various anatomic landmarks, and image noise were quantitatively measured; contrast-to-noise ratios (CNR) and signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) were calculated. Three independent blinded radiologists subjectively rated each image series using a 5-point grading scale.
Results: CT dose index (CTDI) in the LD series was 66.46% lower compared to the SD settings (2.49 ± 0.55 mGy versus 7.42 ± 1.17 mGy). Attenuation of the pulmonary trunk showed similar results for both series (SD 409.55 ± 91.04 HU; LD 380.43 HU ± 93.11 HU; P = 0.768). Subjective image analysis showed no significant differences between SD and LD settings regarding the suitability for detection of central and peripheral PE (central SD/LD, 4.88; intra-class correlation coefficients [ICC], 0.894/4.83; ICC, 0.745; peripheral SD/LD, 4.70; ICC, 0.943/4.57; ICC, 0.919; all P > 0.4).
Conclusion: The LD protocol, on a 15-year-old CT scanner system without current high-end hardware or post-processing tools, led to a dose reduction of approximately 67% with similar subjective image quality and delineation of central and peripheral pulmonary arteries.
KW  - Computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA)
KW  - low-dose imaging
KW  - CT pulmonary angiography
KW  - CT radiation exposure
Y1  - 2016
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/46346
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-463460
SN  - 2058-4601
N1  - Creative Commons CC-BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 License (http://www. creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
VL  - 5
IS  - 12
SP  - 1
EP  - 6
PB  - Sage
CY  - London
ER  -