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Keywords:
Dosimetric comparison, Radiation safety, CT, Radioprotection / Radiation dose, Musculoskeletal spine
Authors:
A. Papachristodoulou1, N. Pliamis1, G. Volford2, R. Markó3, �. Papp3, K. Katsari4, R. Illing3, L. M. J. Best5; 1Thessaloniki/GR, 2Szeged/HU, 3Budapest/HU, 4Athens/GR, 5London/UK
DOI:
10.1594/ecr2016/C-2386
Aims and objectives
Computed tomography (CT) of the lumbar spine is a widely performed examination for patients suffering from back pain or trauma.
CT provides a fast and thorough assessment of the anatomy,
especially in cases where magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is not available.
In addition,
CT may be the modality of choice for examining intervertebral disc pathology in some countries due to state referral guidelines.
Patient safety and awareness of radiation exposure necessitates optimization of the radiation dose during a CT examination.
In recent years scanning techniques and technical advances have have improved CT image quality using low radiation dose protocols. The goal of modern CT is to balance high diagnostic quality imaging with the lowest radiation dose possible.
The radiologist must have optimal image quality to visualize of low-resolution structures,
but iterative reconstruction methods must not be so heavily applied that the images are overly smoothed and thus may lack significant diagnostic information.
Image quality (IQ) is multi-parametric; technical elements such as equipment,
physics and type of the examination may alter objective parameters but subjective IQ assessment by radiologists is also vital as they have clinical responsibility for interpretation.
The objective of this study was to analyze and compare the radiation dose to patients undergoing a lumbar spine CT performed in helical and incremental scanning modes.
In order for this assessment to take place it was necessary to share information and images between different international centers by using modern cloud technology.