High pitch CT in triple rule-out studies: Radiation dose and image quality compared to multidetector CT

Abstract Objective To compare the image quality and radiation dose from high pitch dual source CT (128-DSCT) vs. those from retrospective acquisition with 64-row multidetector CT (64-MDCT) in triple rule-out studies. Material and methods We retrospectively studied 60 patients with acute chest pain: 30 with a retrospective EKG acquisition with 64-MDCT and 30 with high pitch 128-DSCT. We quantitatively analyzed the image quality by calculating the vascular density, muscular density (DM), noise, vascular density/noise ratio (VDNR), and contrast/noise ratio (CNR). We qualitatively evaluated the artifacts in the vena cava, aorta, and coronary arteries. We estimated the effective dose (ED) of radiation by means of the dose-length product. Results There were no significant differences between 128-DSCT and 64-MDCT in the vascular density. The VDNR and CNR were higher on 128-DSCT than on 64-MDCT in the aorta (VDNR: 28.9 ± 11.7 vs. 20 ± 5.5; CNR: 24.4 ± 10.9 vs. 16.8 ± 5.4; P P P P P Conclusion In triple rule-out studies, high pitch 128-DSCT delivers a lower dose of radiation and provides better image quality than retrospective acquisition with 64-MDCT.