IMAGE QUALITY STUDY OF RADIATION-REDUCED COMBINED CHEST AND ABDOMEN/PELVIS CT COMPARED WITH A STANDARD PROTOCOL

The purpose of this study is to examine radiation doses and image quality of a low-dose (LD) protocol for chest and abdomen/pelvis (CAP) CT compared with a standard (STD) protocol. A total of 361 patients were included between October 2019 and April 2020; 104 patients with LD-protocol (100 kV, ref mAs 80 (chest)/145 (abdomen/pelvis)) and 257 patients with STD-protocol (100 kV, ref mAs 100 (chest)/180 (abdomen/pelvis)) at second-generation dual-source CT. Radiation doses for CTDIvol and DLP, and objective and subjective image qualities of 50 examinations from each group were evaluated. The LD-protocol applied significantly lower radiation doses compared with the STD-protocol (p