Radiation dose vs. image quality for low-dose CT protocols of the head for maxillofacial surgery and oral implant planning.
The goal of this study was to determine the acquisition parameters for a low-dose multi-slice CT protocol and to compare the effective dose and the image quality of this low-dose protocol with the image quality of a clinical multi-slice CT protocol, routinely used for visualisation of the head. The low-dose protocol was derived from a clinical multi-slice CT protocol by lowering mA s and kV and increasing the pitch. The low-dose protocol yielded a dose reduction from 1.5 to 0.18 mSv for a multi-slice CT scan of the whole head, whereas noise in the low-dose CT images was increased. For bone segmentation, noise could be reduced by use of a non-linear edge preserving smoothing filter. Tests on ESP and skull phantom indicated that the accuracy of the measurements on low-dose CT is acceptable for image-based planning of maxillofacial and oral implant surgery, reducing the dose by a factor of 8.
Loubele
M
M
Medical Image Computing-ESAT/PSI, Hospital Gasthuisberg, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Herestraat 49, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium. Miet.Loubele@uz.kuleuven.ac.be
Jacobs
R
R
Maes
F
F
Schutyser
F
F
Debaveye
D
D
Bogaerts
R
R
Coudyzer
W
W
Vandermeulen
D
D
van Cleynenbreugel
J
J
Marchal
G
G
Suetens
P
P
D006801:Humans; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D019736:Prostheses and Implants; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011856:Radiographic Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D011862:Radiography, Panoramic; D011874:Radiometry / Q000379:methods*; D012886:Skull / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D013515:Surgery, Oral / Q000379:methods*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*