Preliminary study of dose reduction and image quality of adult pelvic low-dose CT scan with adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction

Abstract

Background

Because pelvic computed tomography (CT) is widely used in clinical practice, there are increasing concerns regarding the associated risks of radiation-induced cancer. Therefore, the capability to reduce the CT radiation dose without compromising image quality is desirable.

Purpose

To assess the radiation dose and image quality of adult pelvic CT using both a routine dose and low radiation dose with filtered back projection (FBP) and adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction (ASIR).

Material and Methods

Forty-five patients underwent both routine-dose CT with FBP reconstruction and low-dose CT with FBP and 50% ASIR blending ratio (ASIR₅₀) reconstruction, respectively. Three different groups of image data were compared for subjective and objective image quality. CT dose index volume (CTDI_vol), dose-length product (DLP), and effective dose (ED) were recorded.

Results

The resulting CTDI_vol, DLP, and ED following low-dose pelvic CT were 10.80 ± 6.0 mGy, 265.0 ± 55.0 mGy.Cm, and 3.97 ± 0.82 mSv, respectively. When compared with the values obtained following routine-dose pelvic CT, the low-dose pelvic CT values decreased by 62%, 55%, and 56%, respectively (P < 0.001). The results following evaluation of subjective and objective image quality revealed that there was no significant difference (P > 0.05) between routine-dose CT with FBP, and low-dose CT with ASIR₅₀. However, significant differences were detected between low-dose CT with FBP, routine-dose CT with FBP, and low-dose CT with ASIR₅₀ (P < 0.01).

Conclusion

The application of low-dose pelvic CT with ASIR₅₀ could dramatically reduce the radiation dose and substantially improve image quality.

Keywords

Pelvic cavity computed tomography low-dose iterative reconstruction

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