Low-dose CT with adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction for evaluation of urinary stone

Area of Science:

• Radiology
• Medical Imaging
• Urology

Background:

• Urinary stone disease diagnosis often relies on CT scans, which can involve significant radiation exposure.
• Optimizing CT protocols to reduce radiation dose while maintaining diagnostic performance is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To prospectively evaluate the diagnostic performance of low-dose CT (LDCT) using adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction (ASIR) for detecting urinary stone disease.
• To compare the radiation dose and image quality of LDCT with ASIR against conventional-dose CT (CDCT).

Main Methods:

• 70 patients with suspected urolithiasis underwent both CDCT and LDCT scans with automatic tube current modulation.
• Image reconstruction utilized filtered back projection (FBP) and varying ASIR levels (40%, 60%, 80%).
• Evaluated parameters included stone characteristics, image quality, noise, diagnostic confidence, and radiation dose (DLP, ED).

Main Results:

• LDCT achieved a 66.1% reduction in dose length product (DLP) and effective dose (ED) compared to CDCT (P < 0.05).
• LDCT with 80% ASIR demonstrated excellent image quality (mean score 4.09), comparable to CDCT-FBP (mean score 4.17) (P > 0.05).
• LDCT-ASIR image quality was significantly superior to LDCT-FBP (mean score 2.77) (P < 0.05).

Conclusions:

• LDCT combined with ASIR effectively reduces radiation dose for diagnosing urinary stone disease.
• This technique maintains high image quality, ensuring diagnostic confidence and accuracy.
• LDCT with ASIR represents a valuable advancement in minimizing radiation exposure for patients with suspected urolithiasis.