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Published on: December 16, 2022
Radiation dose in cardiac CT angiography: protocols and image quality
L C G Oliveira1, I Gottlieb, P Rizzi
1Laboratório de Instrumentação Nuclear (LIN/COPPE/UFRJ), Centro de Tecnologia, Bloco I, Sala 133 Cidade Universitária, Ilha do Fundão, Rio de Janeiro (RJ) CEP 21949-900, Brasil. larissaconceicao@yahoo.com.br
Abstract:
This paper aims to evaluate the radiation dose exposure of patients submitted to cardiac computed tomography angiography. The effective dose was obtained from the product of dose-length product values and the conversion factor established in the European Working Group for Guidelines on Quality Criteria in CT. The image noise and contrast- and signal-to-noise ratios were obtained for all images. Sixty-four- and 256-slice CT angiographies were used in 211 (68.5 %) and 97 (31.5 %) patients, respectively. The calculated mean effective dose with prospective CT angiography was 6.0±1.0 mSv and the retrospective mode was 8.4±1.2 mSv. The mean image noise values were 38.5±9.5 and 21.4 ± 5.3 for prospective and retrospective modes, respectively. It was observed that the image noise increased by 44.4 % using a prospective mode. Prospective CT angiography reduces radiation dose by ∼29 % compared with the retrospective mode, while maintaining diagnostic image quality and the ability to assess obstructions in patients.
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