TUESDAY, May 4 (HealthDay News) -- Use of adaptive image filters in computed tomography (CT) scans of the chest and abdomen allow radiologists to lower the radiation levels associated with these scans and improve image quality, according to research presented at the annual meeting of the American Roentgen Ray Society, held from May 2 to 7 in San Diego.
Sarabjeet Singh, M.D., of the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and colleagues performed CT scans of the chest and abdomen at four different levels of radiation in 12 patients in a prospective clinical study to assess the effect of processing films with two-dimensional nonlinear adaptive image filters.
The researchers found that quantitative image noise in post-processed low-dose abdomen and chest CT images was significantly lower than in low-dose unprocessed abdomen and chest images, and that image filters were associated with improved subjective noise for both chest and abdomen CT images regardless of radiation dose. Eighteen lesions visualized -- most smaller than 1 cm -- were seen on both processed and unprocessed CT exams. In addition, the authors observed no significant differences between CT numbers, conspicuity of lesions, or visibility of small structures between the two types of CT images.
"Regardless of radiation dose, post processing with image filters improved subjective noise for both chest and abdominal CT and helped lower the CT radiation dose levels for chest by up to 40 mAs and for the abdominal CT by up to 100 mAs," said Singh in a statement.
A co-author is the recipient of funding from GE Healthcare.
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