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Comparison of low dose with standard dose abdominal/pelvic multidetector CT in patients with stage 1 testicular cancer under surveillance

  • Computed Tomography
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Abstract

Purpose

To compare the image quality and acceptability of a low dose with those of standard dose abdominal/pelvic multidetector CT in patients with stage 1 testicular cancer managed by surveillance.

Methods

One hundred patients (median age 31 years; range 19–83 years), 79 with seminoma and 21 with non-seminoma, underwent abdominal/pelvic imaging with low and standard dose protocols on 64-slice multidetector CT. Three reviewers independently evaluated images for noise and diagnostic quality on a 5-point scale and for diagnostic acceptability.

Results

On average, each reader scored noise and diagnostic quality of standard dose images significantly better than corresponding low dose images (p < 0.0001). One reader found all CT examinations acceptable; two readers each found 1/100 (1%) low dose examinations unacceptable. Median and mean dose–length product for low and standard dose protocols were 416.0 and 452.2 (range 122.9–913.4) and 931.9 and 999.8 (range 283.8–1,987.7) mGy cm, respectively.

Conclusions

The low dose protocol provided diagnostically acceptable images for at least 99% of patients and achieved mean dose reduction of 55% compared with the standard dose protocol.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Joint Department of Medical Imaging, Princess Margaret Hospital 3-956, 610 University Avenue, Toronto, ON, M5G 2M9, Canada

    Martin E. O’Malley

  2. Department of Radiation Oncology, Princess Margaret Hospital, 610 University Avenue, Toronto, ON, M5G 2M9, Canada

    Peter Chung & Padraig Warde

  3. Joint Department of Medical Imaging, Princess Margaret Hospital, 610 University Avenue, Toronto, ON, M5G 2M9, Canada

    Masoom Haider, Kartik Jhaveri & Korosh Khalili

  4. Joint Department of Medical Imaging, Toronto General Hospital, 585 University Avenue, Toronto, ON, M5G 2N2, Canada

    Hyun-Jung Jang

  5. Department of Biostatistics, Princess Margaret Hospital, 10-509, 610 University Avenue, Toronto, ON, M5G 2M9, Canada

    Tony Panzarella

Authors
  1. Martin E. O’Malley
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  2. Peter Chung
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  3. Masoom Haider
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  5. Kartik Jhaveri
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  6. Korosh Khalili
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  8. Padraig Warde
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Correspondence to Martin E. O’Malley.

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O’Malley, M.E., Chung, P., Haider, M. et al. Comparison of low dose with standard dose abdominal/pelvic multidetector CT in patients with stage 1 testicular cancer under surveillance. Eur Radiol 20, 1624–1630 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-009-1710-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-009-1710-1

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