Variation in Tube Voltage for Adult Neck MDCT: Effect on Radiation Dose and Image Quality

Abstract

Reducing the voltage from 120 to 80 kVp for neck CT can result in greater than 50% reduction in the absorbed organ dose to the bone marrow of the cervical spine and mandible without impairment in subjective image quality.

Automated Tube Voltage Adaptation in Combination with Advanced Modeled Iterative Reconstruction in Thoracoabdominal Third-Generation 192-Slice Dual-Source Computed Tomography

“…Low-tube-voltage acquisition has been extensively investigated for different body regions to reduce radiation exposure (5,9,(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25). A potential drawback of this technique is an increase in image noise which may impair diagnostic acceptability (20,21,23).…”

An Exponential Growth in Incidence of Thyroid Cancer: Trends and Impact of CT Imaging

“…The mean radiation dose to the thyroid from a CT scan of the neck ranges from 17-34 mGy, which is within the range that may increase the risk for thyroid cancer in children. [18][19][20] However, most people receiving neck CT scans are older adults, and the risk for cancer from radiation exposure decreases sharply with increasing age. 21 Pooled analyses of studies of thyroid cancer in patients exposed to radiation found that there was little risk for excess cancer when exposure was after age 20 years.…”

Low-Tube-Voltage 80-kVp Neck CT: Evaluation of Diagnostic Accuracy and Interobserver Agreement

“…[13][14][15] However, only a few prior studies evaluated low-tube-voltage CT acquisitions for imaging the soft-tissue structures of the neck region. [16][17][18] Gnannt et al 16 demonstrated that the consecutive increase in soft-tissue attenuation on 70-kVp scans is higher than the corresponding increase in image noise, therefore resulting in a superior contrastto-noise ratio for neck imaging. They reported a dose reduction of 34% with 70-kVp acquisitions compared with standard 120-kVp acquisitions.…”

“…[13][14][15] However, only a few studies have investigated low-tubevoltage acquisition CT techniques for imaging of the neck. [16][17][18] We hypothesized that an 80-kVp acquisition may provide comparable image quality for evaluation of the neck region. To evaluate the efficacy of this technique in simulated routine clinical practice, we retrospectively assessed the diagnostic accuracy of low-tube-voltage 80-kVp image series from dual-energy neck CT (DECT) for evaluation of a variety of cervical pathologies, and the results were compared with linearly blended images representing a standard 120-kVp acquisition.…”