Prospective study on the value of CARE kV technique in reducing the radiation dose in adult chest CT imaging / 中华放射医学与防护杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the application of CARE kV technique in the adult chest CT and the value of reducing radiation dose.Methods Sixty-nine patients were divided into two groups by random number generatorsgroup A(39 cases) and group B(30 cases).Group A was examined by using CARE kV technique and group B was examined at routine 120 kV.CT dose index(CTDIvol),dose length product (DLP) and effective dose (E) were compared between the two groups,and analyzed the correlation between tube voltage selection and patient body mass index (BMI) of group A was analyzed.Results The average CTDIvol [(11.00 ± 3.89) mGy],DLP[(294.05 ± 91.17) mGy·cm] and E[(4.12 ± 1.28) mSv] of group A were lower than those of group B (16.64 ± 1.20) mGy,[(475.99 ± 41.16) mGy · cm],[(6.66 ±0.58) mSv].With statistically significant difference (t =-7.653,-10.151,-10.150,P ＜ 0.05).Compared with routine 120 kV technique (group B),the CARE kV technique (group A) could reduce the total radiation dose about 38.14％.Compared obese patients(BMI≥28 kg/m2) with non-obese patients in group A and B,the mean E of non-obese patients was lower than that of obese patients in group A,which reduced the total E about 31.74％ (t =4.322,P ＜0.05),while E in group B was no significant different between non-obese patients and obese patients.Conclusions In adult chest CT,CARE kV technique can select optimum scanning voltage automatically according to the patients with different BMI and anatomical regions,which can reduce the overall radiation dose while maintaining image quality.