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Updated: Jun 1, 2026
Retrospective Cardiac Gating with A Prototype Small-Animal X-ray Computed Tomograph
Published on: February 21, 2025
Coronary CT angiography: image quality, diagnostic accuracy, and potential for radiation dose reduction using a novel
Antonio Moscariello1, Richard A P Takx, U Joseph Schoepf
1Heart & Vascular Center, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC 29425-2260, USA.
Objectives:
To compare image noise, image quality and diagnostic accuracy of coronary CT angiography (cCTA) using a novel iterative reconstruction algorithm versus traditional filtered back projection (FBP) and to estimate the potential for radiation dose savings.
Methods:
Sixty five consecutive patients (48 men; 59.3 ± 7.7 years) prospectively underwent cCTA and coronary catheter angiography (CCA). Full radiation dose data, using all projections, were reconstructed with FBP. To simulate image acquisition at half the radiation dose, 50% of the projections were discarded from the raw data. The resulting half-dose data were reconstructed with sinogram-affirmed iterative reconstruction (SAFIRE). Full-dose FBP and half-dose iterative reconstructions were compared with regard to image noise and image quality, and their respective accuracy for stenosis detection was compared against CCA.
Results:
Compared with full-dose FBP, half-dose iterative reconstructions showed significantly (p = 0.001 - p = 0.025) lower image noise and slightly higher image quality. Iterative reconstruction improved the accuracy of stenosis detection compared with FBP (per-patient: accuracy 96.9% vs. 93.8%, sensitivity 100% vs. 100%, specificity 94.6% vs. 89.2%, NPV 100% vs. 100%, PPV 93.3% vs. 87.5%).
Conclusions:
Iterative reconstruction significantly reduces image noise without loss of diagnostic information and holds the potential for substantial radiation dose reduction from cCTA.
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