An assessment of the role of scan speed in perceived image quality of body computed tomography.
Forty-three chest (noncardiac) and 75 abdominal computed tomographic (CT) examinations were studied by obtaining four sections of a pertinent area using 2.25-, 4.5-, 9-, and 18-second scan speeds. Chest scans obtained with the three faster speeds were perceived to be qualitatively similar to one another but were rated better than the 18-second sections. While these qualitative differences were statistically significant, most were relatively unimportant clinically. Analysis of the abdominal sections showed significant qualitative improvement with each successively faster scan speed. The only sections rated unreadable and/or showing large numbers of motion artifacts were abdominal studies, primarily 18-second studies. A statistically significant loss of diagnostic information was noted with 18-second scans, especially in the upper abdomen.
D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D011860:Radiography, Abdominal; D013997:Time Factors; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*