70-kVp High-pitch Computed Tomography Pulmonary Angiography with 40 mL Contrast Agent

Prospective Randomized Comparison of High-pitch CT at 80 kVp Under Free Breathing with Standard-pitch CT at 100 kVp Under Breath-Hold for Detection of Pulmonary Embolism

“…In contrast to the above-mentioned studies (7,12), in our study scan time was not only reduced by increasing pitch, but also by the reduction of rotation time down to 0.25 second. This allowed for a further scan time reduction and resulted in a further reduction of radiation dose.…”

“…We think that this accounts mainly to (1) the higher signal in the pulmonary arteries and (2) the reduction of motion artifacts. Li et al (12) assessed image quality, radiation dose, and diagnostic accuracy of 70-kVp high-pitch computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) using 40 mL contrast agent and sinogram affirmed iterative reconstruction (SAFIRE) compared to 100-kVp CTPA using 60 mL contrast agent and filtered back projection. They found that 70-kVp highpitch CTPA with reduced contrast media and SAFIRE provides comparable image quality and substantial radiation dose savings compared to a routine CTPA protocol (12).…”

CT pulmonary angiography: simultaneous low-pitch dual-source acquisition mode with 70 kVp and 40 ml of contrast medium and comparison with high-pitch spiral dual-source acquisition with automated tube potential selection

“…The CM (Accupaque ™ 300, iohexol, 300 mg iodine/ml; GE Healthcare, Munich, Germany) was injected using a power injector (Medrad® Stellant® Injector; Bayer Vital GmbH, Leverkusen, Germany) with a flow rate of 3 ml s 21 in all patients. CM injection was followed by a saline flush (40 ml, 3 ml s 21 ). The classical bolus trigger technique (CareBolus; Siemens Healthcare GmbH) (80 kVp) in the pulmonary trunk (PT) with a threshold of 130 HU was used to trigger the examinations.…”

“…for CTA, 6,11,18,21 chest CT, 22 paediatric CT 23 and cranial CT. 24 These studies also showed feasibility, diagnostic image quality and a potential for reduction of radiation dose and CM. Up to date, only two studies have reported the results for dual-source 70-kVp CTPA.…”

“…Up to date, only two studies have reported the results for dual-source 70-kVp CTPA. 18,20 Li et al 21 investigated the feasibility of a 70-kVp high-pitch CTPA protocol with 40 ml of CM and reported sufficient image quality at a mean DLP of 28 mGy cm. Because they were not able to report the height, weight and BMI of the patients, Li et al 21 used diameter measurements to compare groups.…”