Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 23, 2026
Use of a Piglet Model for the Study of Anesthetic-induced Developmental Neurotoxicity AIDN: A Translational Neuroscience Approach
Published on: June 11, 2017
Significant dose reduction for pediatric digital subtraction angiography without impairing image quality: preclinical
John Racadio1, Keith Strauss, Todd Abruzzo
11 Department of Radiology, Division of Pediatric Interventional Radiology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital, 3333 Burnet Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45229.
Objective:
The purpose of this study was to validate the hypothesis that image quality of digital subtraction angiography (DSA) in pediatrics is not impaired when using a low-dose acquisition protocol.
Materials And Methods:
Three piglets corresponding to common pediatric population sizes were used. DSA was performed in the aorta and renal, hepatic, and superior mesenteric arteries using both the commonly used reference standard and novel radiographic imaging noise reduction technologies to ensure pairwise radiation dose and image quality comparison. The air kerma per frame at the interventional reference point for each DSA acquisition was collected as a radiation dose measure, and image quality was evaluated by five interventional radiologists in a randomized blinded fashion using a 5-point scale.
Results:
The mean air kerma (± SD) at the interventional reference point with the novel x-ray imaging noise reduction technology was significantly lower (1.1 ± 0.8 mGy/frame) than with the reference technology (4.2 ± 3.0 mGy/frame, p = 0.005). However, image quality was statistically similar, with average scores of 3.2 ± 0.4 and 3.1 ± 0.5 for the novel and reference technologies, respectively (p = 0.934); interrater absolute agreement was 0.77.
Conclusion:
The DSA radiation dose for pediatrics can be reduced by a factor of four with a novel x-ray imaging noise reduction technology without deterioration of image quality.
