Effectiveness of the smoothing filter in pediatric ^99mTc-dimercaptosuccinic acid renal scintigraphy

The present study aimed to evaluate whether the use of a smoothing filter would improve the image quality in pediatric ^99mTc-dimercaptosuccinic acid (^99mTc-DMSA) scintigraphy. We retrospectively reviewed 31 kidneys in 16 consecutive pediatric patients aged 10 months to 14 years. The administered dose was calculated using a weight-based method. Two reviewers randomly evaluated the original planar posterior images and smoothing filter image; they assessed image quality and performed defect evaluations. The evaluation of visual image quality yielded significantly better results for the smoothing filter images than for the original images. Although the smoothing filter images were slightly inferior to the original images in terms of edge sharpness, no significant difference was observed in the defect evaluation. We confirmed that ^99mTc-DMSA scintigraphy with a smoothing filter yielded reduced image noise, while maintaining defect evaluation performance and improving image quality.