Detailed distribution of acute pulmonary thromboemboli: Direct evidence for reduction of acquisition length and radiation dose for triple rule-out CT angiography

Comparison of Radiation Dose and Image Quality of Triple-Rule-Out Computed Tomography Angiography Between Conventional Helical Scanning and a Strategy Incorporating Sequential Scanning

“…The use of ESTCM reduced radiation doses by more than 50% (18.0 mSv vs 8.75 mSv) without a loss in image quality among a cohort of 267 patients 16. Uehara et al concluded that a limited range scan from the top of the aortic arch to the undersurface of the heart would decrease doses approximately 22% compared to a scan of the entire chest without missing the diagnosis of an acute pulmonary thromboembolus 27. Excluding the lung apices may reduce the scan length by up to 5 cm with an estimated dose reduction of 15% to 20% 5.…”

“…As anticipated, the dose was significantly greater than that for the CCTA scans. The dose in our TRO CTA protocol could be reduced further by using a limited range scan,1,27 an approach which requires further investigation.…”

Reducedz-axis coverage in multidetector-row CT pulmonary angiography decreases radiation dose and diagnostic accuracy of alternative diseases

“…Three previous studies have reduced the scanned length by 22%, 37% and 47% and have shown that such reductions do not impair the diagnosis of acute PE. [16][17][18] In our study, z-axis coverage was reduced to approximately one-third (100 mm compared with 296 6 80 mm) and only 1 of the 247 patients with a segmental PE was misclassified, because his unique clot was localized out of the scanned range. Reduced z-axis coverage could of course miss PE in the segmental or even more distal arteries in the lung apices and lung bases.…”

“…11 In these patients, the radiation dose can be reduced while still providing the same level of diagnostic accuracy by reducing the tube current-time product, [12][13][14] the tube potential 13,15 or the distance scanned from 22% to 47%. [16][17][18] In these studies, the impact of reducing the scan length of the detection of alternative diagnosis has not yet been investigated.…”

Estimation of radiation exposure of retrospective gated and prospective triggered 128-slice triple-rule-out CT angiography

“…Uehara et al reported a possible reduction of acquisition lengths (from the aortic arch to the base of the heart) for TRO CTA without missing the diagnosis of a relevant pulmonary embolism resulting in a potential dose reduction of up to 21.9% in comparison to full-length TRO CTA scans (25).…”