Radiation Dose Consideration in Kidney Stone CT Examinations: Integration of Iterative Reconstruction Algorithms With Routine Clinical Practice

OBJECTIVE. The objective of our study was to evaluate three commercially available iterative reconstruction (IR) algorithms—ASiR, iDOSE, and SAFIRE—and conventional filtered back projection (FBP) on image quality and radiation dose in kidney stone CT examinations. MATERIALS AND METHODS. During the 6-month study period, 684 unenhanced kidney stone CT examinations of consecutive adults were performed on 17 CT scanners (GE Healthcare [vendor 1], n = 12 scanners; Philips Healthcare [vendor 2], n = 2; Siemens Health-care [vendor 3], n = 3); these examinations were retrieved using dose-monitoring software (eXposure). A total of 347 kidney stone CT examinations were reconstructed using FBP, and 337 examinations were processed using IR (ASiR, n = 248; iDOSE, n = 50; SAFIRE, n = 39). The standard-dose scanning parameters for FBP scanners included a tube potential of 120 kVp, a tube current of 75–450 mA for vendor 1 and a Quality Reference mAs of 160–180 for vendor 3, and a slice thickness of 2.5 or 5 mm. The dose-...