Prospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Radiol. Feb 28, 2023; 15(2): 32-41
Published online Feb 28, 2023. doi: 10.4329/wjr.v15.i2.32
Effects of combining multiple dose reduction techniques on coronary computed tomography angiography
Xiao-Lu Hu, Pei-Kai Huang, Meng Zhang, Jun Chen, Meng-Qiang Xiao
Xiao-Lu Hu, Pei-Kai Huang, Meng Zhang, Jun Chen, Meng-Qiang Xiao, Department of Imaging, Zhuhai Hospital, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Zhuhai 650031, Guangdong Province, China
Author contributions: Hu XL and Huang PK were involved in drafting the manuscript; Zhang M and Huang PK were involved in acquisition of data; Chen J prepared the figures; Xiao MQ reviewed and revised the manuscript; All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by Zhuhai Medical Research Fund, No. ZH3310200001PJL.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the institutional review board of Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, No. BF2020-229-01.
Informed consent statement: All patients provided written consent, and written informed consent was obtained from each patient or the patient’s family before performing the computed tomography scan. This study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: The datasets used or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
CONSORT 2010 statement: The authors have read the CONSORT 2010 Statement, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CONSORT 2010 Statement.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Meng-Qiang Xiao, Doctor, Deputy Doctor, Department of Imaging, Zhuhai Hospital, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, No. 53 Jingle Road, Zhuhai 650031, Guangdong Province, China. xmqzhuhai@163.com
Received: May 29, 2022
Peer-review started: May 29, 2022
First decision: August 22, 2022
Revised: September 23, 2022
Accepted: February 13, 2023
Article in press: February 13, 2023
Published online: February 28, 2023
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) is the preferred non-invasive examination method for coronary heart disease. However, the radiation from computed tomography has become a concern since public awareness of radiation hazards continue to increase.

AIM

To explore the value of multiple dose reduction techniques for CCTA.

METHODS

Consecutive normal and overweight patients were prospectively divided into two groups: Group A1, patients who received multiple dose reduction scans (n = 82); and group A2, patients who received conventional scans (n = 39). The scan parameters for group A1 were as follows: Isocentric scan, tube voltage = 80 kV, and tube current control using 80% smart milliampere. The scan parameters for group A2 were as follows: Normal position, tube voltage = 100 kV, and smart milliampere.

RESULTS

The average effective doses (EDs) for groups A1 and A2 were 1.13 ± 0.35 and 3.36 ± 1.30 mSv, respectively. There was a statistically significant difference in ED between the two groups (P < 0.01). Furthermore, noise was significantly lower, and both signal-to-noise ratio and contrast signal-to-noise ratio were higher in group A2 when compared to group A1 (P < 0.01). Moreover, the subjective image quality (IQ) scores were excellent in both groups, in which there was no significant difference in subjective IQ score between the two groups (P = 0.12).

CONCLUSION

Multiple dose reduction scan techniques can significantly decrease the ED of patients receiving CCTA examinations for clinical diagnosis.

Keywords: Isocentric scanning, Coronary heart disease, Dose reduction techniques, Coronary computed tomography angiography, Radiation

Core Tip: Coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) is the preferred non-invasive examination method for coronary heart disease (CHD). The present study was the first to combine multiple dose reduction techniques, including narrow acquisition window, low tube voltage, lower tube current, and isocentric scanning, to decrease CCTA radiation exposure of patients with suspected CHD. The radiation dose for the group with multiple dose reduction was approximately 33.63% (1.13 ± 0.35/3.36 ± 1.30) of the dose associated with the conventional method.