Objective factors affecting the image quality of low-dose cranial CT of infant / 中华放射医学与防护杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the objective factors that affect the image quality of infant cranial CT using different mAs. Materials and Methods Ninety infants were divided into three groups randomly. The maximum anteroposterior diameter (MAPD) of skull of each infant was measured. Three reference levels, cerebellar, basal ganglia and centrum semiovale levels were selected respectively. Only one level was studied in each group and scanned with 150, 100 and 80 mAs. The subjective quality grade and the objective noise of all images were recorded and analysed statistically. Result The average MAPD of ninety patients was (148.0 ± 17.4)mm. On the cerebellar level, the subjective quality grade was lower than the other two levels, which were 6.3% , 9.4% and 22.9% respectively when mAs were 150, 100 and 80 mAs. Both quality grade of image and objective noise were significantly correlated with MAPD.Conclusion The inherent high noise of cerebellar level and MAPD were the objective factors that affect the image quality of low-dose cranial CT of infant.