Radiation dose reduction in CT: application to tissue area and volume determination.

Abstract

To study the potential for radiation dose reduction in computed tomographic (CT) determination of adipose and muscle tissue area and volume, which is an application in which lower spatial resolution or higher image noise can be accepted. Measurements in vivo (in a healthy man aged 52 years; weight, 80 kg) and in phantoms were performed with two standard clinical CT scanners. Tissue areas were determined, and measurement uncertainties were analyzed. Comparisons were made with simulated and theoretic data. A 25-fold reduction in radiation dose was achieved and resulted in an effective dose of 13 microSv per section; an accuracy of greater than 5% in area measurements was maintained. The dose savings achieved in this study were close to those that are theoretically possible. Further dose reduction to about 1 microSv may be possible for this application. Large dose reductions are possible in CT determinations of tissue area and volume, which makes this application available also in large randomized studies in which high-performance clinical standard scanners are used. This work demonstrates that modern CT technology may have a large potential for dose reduction in specific applications.