Comparison of low dose with standard dose abdominal/pelvic multidetector CT in patients with stage 1 testicular cancer under surveillance.
OBJECTIVE
To compare the image quality and acceptability of a low dose with those of standard dose abdominal/pelvic multidetector CT in patients with stage 1 testicular cancer managed by surveillance.


METHODS
One hundred patients (median age 31 years; range 19-83 years), 79 with seminoma and 21 with non-seminoma, underwent abdominal/pelvic imaging with low and standard dose protocols on 64-slice multidetector CT. Three reviewers independently evaluated images for noise and diagnostic quality on a 5-point scale and for diagnostic acceptability.


RESULTS
On average, each reader scored noise and diagnostic quality of standard dose images significantly better than corresponding low dose images (p < 0.0001). One reader found all CT examinations acceptable; two readers each found 1/100 (1%) low dose examinations unacceptable. Median and mean dose-length product for low and standard dose protocols were 416.0 and 452.2 (range 122.9-913.4) and 931.9 and 999.8 (range 283.8-1,987.7) mGy cm, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
The low dose protocol provided diagnostically acceptable images for at least 99% of patients and achieved mean dose reduction of 55% compared with the standard dose protocol.
O'Malley
Martin E
ME
Joint Department of Medical Imaging, Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada. martin.o'malley@uhn.on.ca
Chung
Peter
P
Haider
Masoom
M
Jang
Hyun-Jung
HJ
Jhaveri
Kartik
K
Khalili
Korosh
K
Panzarella
Tony
T
Warde
Padraig
P
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016477:Artifacts; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D015588:Observer Variation; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011857:Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; D012015:Reference Standards; D013736:Testicular Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*