Feasibility of Pediatric Low-Dose Facial CT Reconstructed with Filtered Back Projection Using Adequate Kernels
- Author:
Hye JI
1
;
Hye JI
;
Sun Kyoung YOU
;
Jeong Eun LEE
;
So Mi LEE
;
Hyun-Hae CHO
;
Joon Young OHM
Author Information
- Publication Type:Original Article
- From:Journal of the Korean Radiological Society 2022;83(3):669-679
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
Purpose:To evaluate the feasibility of pediatric low-dose facial CT reconstructed with filtered back projection (FBP) using adequate kernels.
Materials and Methods:We retrospectively reviewed the clinical and imaging data of children aged < 10 years who underwent facial CT at our emergency department. The patients were divided into two groups: low-dose CT (LDCT; Group A, n = 73) with a fixed 80-kVp tube potential and automatic tube current modulation (ATCM) and standard-dose CT (SDCT; Group B, n = 40) with a fixed 120-kVp tube potential and ATCM. All images were reconstructed with FBP using bone and soft tissue kernels in Group A and only bone kernel in Group B. The groups were compared in terms of image noise, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR). Two radiologists subjectively scored the overall image quality of bony and soft tissue structures. The CT dose index volume and dose-length product were recorded.
Results:Image noise was higher in Group A than in Group B in bone kernel images (p < 0.001). Group A using a soft tissue kernel showed the highest SNR and CNR for all soft tissue structures (all p < 0.001). In the qualitative analysis of bony structures, Group A scores were found to be similar to or higher than Group B scores on comparing bone kernel images. In the qualitative analysis of soft tissue structures, there was no significant difference between Group A using a soft tissue kernel and Group B using a bone kernel with a soft tissue window setting (p > 0.05). Group A showed a 76.9% reduction in radiation dose compared to Group B (3.2 ± 0.2 mGy vs. 81.9 ± 11.1 mGy; p < 0.001).
Conclusion:The addition of a soft tissue kernel image to conventional CT reconstructed with FBP enables the use of pediatric low-dose facial CT protocol while maintaining image quality.
