Impact of 80 kVp with iterative reconstruction algorithm and low-dose contrast medium on the image quality of
Po-An Chen1, Chih-Wei Chen1, Chiung-Chen Chou2
1Department of Radiology, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, No. 386, Ta-Chung 1st Road, Kaohsiung 81362, Taiwan; Faculty of Medicine, School of Medicine, National Yang Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan; Institute of Clinical Medicine, National Yang Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Purpose:
To assess the image quality of 80-kVp craniocervical CT angiography (CCCTA) protocol combined with adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction-V (ASIR-V) and low-dose contrast medium (CM).
Methods:
A total of 119 patients were randomly divided into three groups. For group A, 120-kVp protocol was followed with 60 ml CM and filtered back projection; for group B, 80-kVp protocol with 60 ml CM and ASIR-V; and for group C, 80-kVp protocol with 45 ml CM and ASIR-V. Both subjective and objective image quality and radiation doses were evaluated.
Results:
Arterial attenuation, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) of the head, neck, and shoulder regions were significantly higher in groups B and C compared with group A. Group C yielded significantly better subjective image quality than that observed in groups A and B (both p < .05). As compared with group A, effective radiation dose and the iodine load of group C were reduced by 51.4% and 25%, respectively.
Conclusions:
The CCCTA protocol with 80 kVp, ASIR-V, and 45 ml of CM injected at 3 ml/s significantly reduced the radiation dose, iodine load, and iodine delivery rate while providing better subjective and objective image quality, including higher arterial enhancement and a higher SNR and CNR compared with the 120-kVp protocol.
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