Low-dose ct protocol optimization for the assessment of acute appendicitis: the opticap phantom study.

The aim was to evaluate effects of voltage, noise input (NI) and iterative reconstruction (IR) on radiation dose and image quality in order to establish a contrast enhanced low-dose protocol for assessment of acute appendicitis. An anthropomorphic abdominal phantom mimicking contrast enhanced abdomen was scanned with 80, 100 and 120 kV, standard and strong IR and 11 NIs (66 protocols). A total of 14 test tubes of increasing iodine dilutions and one tube with an appendicolith were evaluated within the phantom. The dose, HUs, noise, contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) and figure of merit (FOM) were determined. Visual quality scores were assessed by two readers. A clinically used voltage-IR combination (120 kV, standard IR) was used as a reference. Overall, 100 kV with standard IR (p = 0.002) and 80 kV with both IRs (p < 0.001) showed higher CNR than the reference, but noise was most pronounced at 80 kV (p < 0.001). The highest FOM was found in the 100 kV protocols (p < 0.001). The reference and 100 kV with standard IR had highest image quality scores, where the 100 kV protocol enabled a distinct dose reduction. Lowering the voltage seems to be a more favorable tool than IR changes in optimizing the dose in contrast enhanced abdominal CT. TRIAL REGISTRATION:ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01022567.