title: Full and hybrid iterative reconstruction to reduce artifacts in abdominal CT for patients scanned without arm elevation.
abstract: Background Abdominal computed tomography (CT) without arm elevation is associated with degraded image quality due to streak artifacts. Purpose To compare the degree of streak artifacts in abdominal CT images without arm elevation between full iterative reconstruction (IR), hybrid IR, and filtered back projection (FBP) using two commercially available scanners. Material and Methods First, a phantom study simulating CT examination without arm elevation was performed. Second, unenhanced axial images of 33 patients (17 and 16 patients for each vendor) who underwent CT without arm elevation were reconstructed with full IR, hybrid IR and FBP. A radiologist placed 50 parallel lines with lengths of 50 pixels vertical to the streaks and quantitatively evaluated the images for streak artifacts in the phantom study. Two radiologists evaluated the images of patients for streak artifacts (on the liver and the kidney) and diagnostic acceptability using a four-point scale. Results The phantom study indicated that full IR algorithms were more effective than FBP in reducing streak artifacts. In the clinical patient study, streak artifacts were significantly more reduced with full IR compared with FBP in both the liver and kidney ( P < 0.012). Streak artifact reduction was limited with hybrid IR. Model-based iterative reconstruction (MBIR) (one of the full IR algorithms) provided diagnostically more acceptable image quality ( P < 0.016) compared with FBP. Conclusion In abdominal CT without arm elevation, full IR enabled a more efficient streak artifact reduction compared with FBP and MBIR was associated with diagnostically more acceptable images.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Radiology, Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.|2 Department of Radiology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Koichiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yasaka
authors.affiliation: 2 Department of Radiology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Toshihiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Furuta
authors.affiliation: 2 Department of Radiology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Takatoshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kubo
authors.affiliation: 2 Department of Radiology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Eriko
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Maeda
authors.affiliation: 2 Department of Radiology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Masaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Katsura
authors.affiliation: 2 Department of Radiology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Jiro
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.affiliation: 2 Department of Radiology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Kuni
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ohtomo
mesh_terms: D000005:Abdomen / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D000368:Aged; D000465:Algorithms; D001132:Arm; D016477:Artifacts; D003287:Contrast Media; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D056888:Patient Positioning; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D011857:Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D003287:Contrast Media
keywords: Abdomen/GI; adults; artifacts; computed tomography (CT); kidney; liver