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Suitability of helical multislice acquisition technique for routine unenhanced brain CT: an image quality study using a 16-row detector configuration

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Abstract

Subjective and objective image quality (IQ) criteria, radiation doses, and acquisition times were compared using incremental monoslice, incremental multislice, and helical multislice acquisition techniques for routine unenhanced brain computed tomography (CT). Twenty-four patients were examined by two techniques in the same imaging session using a 16-row CT system equipped with 0.75-width detectors. Contiguous “native” 3-mm-thick slices were reconstructed for all acquisitions from four detectors for each slice (4×0.75 mm), with one channel available per detector. Two protocols were tailored to compare: (1) one-slice vs four-slice incremental images; (2) incremental vs helical four-slice images. Two trained observers independently scored 12 subjective items of IQ. Preference for the technique was assessed by one-tailed t test and the interobserver variation by two-tailed t test. The two observers gave very close IQ scores for the three techniques without significant interobserver variations. Measured IQ parameters failed to reveal any difference between techniques, and an approximate half radiation dose reduction was obtained by using the full 16-row configuration. Acquisition times were cumulatively shortened by using the multislice and the helical modality.

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Acknowledgements

We are indebted to Stefaan Vynckier and Jean-Marc Denis, Medical Physics group of the Radiation Oncology Department of our institution, who performed and calculated IQ measurements on phantoms, and to Gregory Delrue, technologist of the same department, who prepared them.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology and Medical Imaging, Université Catholique de Louvain, Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc, Avenue Hippocrate, 10, 1200, Brussels, Belgium

    Danielle Hernalsteen, Guy Cosnard, Cécile Grandin & Thierry Duprez

  2. Department of Epidemiologics and Medical Statistics, Public Health School, Université Catholique de Louvain, Clos Chapelle-aux-Champs, 6, 1200, Brussels, Belgium

    Annie Robert

  3. Philips Medical Systems, CT Clinical Science, Cleveland, OH, USA

    Alain Vlassenbroek

Authors
  1. Danielle Hernalsteen
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  2. Guy Cosnard
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  3. Annie Robert
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  4. Cécile Grandin
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  5. Alain Vlassenbroek
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  6. Thierry Duprez
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Correspondence to Thierry Duprez.

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Hernalsteen, D., Cosnard, G., Robert, A. et al. Suitability of helical multislice acquisition technique for routine unenhanced brain CT: an image quality study using a 16-row detector configuration. Eur Radiol 17, 975–982 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-006-0360-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-006-0360-9

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