Radiation dose reduction and image quality in pediatric paranasal sinus CT: with automatic tube current modulation...

Our objective is to evaluate radiation dose and image quality in pediatric paranasal sinus computed tomography (CT) with automatic tube current modulation (ATCM) and sinogram-affirmed iterative reconstruction algorithm (SAFIRE). CT scans from 80 patients were divided into two groups: Group A [80 kVp, pitch 1.5, 40 mAs, the filtered back projection (FBP) algorithm] and Group B (70 kVp, pitch 3, ATCM with reference at 40 mAs, SAFIRE strengths 1-5). We have evaluated image quality and radiation dose. Group B demonstrated significantly lower volume computed tomography dose index, dose-length product, and effective dose than Group A (0.13 ± 0.03 vs. 1.57 ± 0.01 mGy, 2.27 ± 0.82 vs. 19.88 ± 2.01 mGy·cm, and 0.0081 ± 0.0017 vs. 0.079 ± 0.013 mSv, respectively; P < .001). Increasing SAFIRE strengths correlated with noise reduction and SNR enhancement. Group B's noise and SNRsoft at SAFIRE strength 5 were comparable with Group A. Images reconstructed with SAFIRE strength 5 in Group B exhibit comparable image quality with FBP in Group A.