An Impact Of Low Tube Voltage On Image Quality In Cerebral Dual Energy Computed Tomography Angiography:an Intra-individual Study

ObjectiveTo assess the effect of low tube voltage (80kVp) on the image quality in cerebral computed tomography angiography (CTA).Materials and MethodsThirty patients suspected with cerebral vascular disease underwent CTA with SOMATOM Definition Flash CT (Siemens) in dual-energy (DE) mode. The image datasets, which were obtained from tube A (80kVp), tube B (Sn140kVp), and fusion images that create the impression of120kVp (weighting factor:0.4), were transferred to workstation (MMWP47060) for post-processing. CT values in the internal carotid artery at T junction, signal-to-noise ratios (SNR), contrast-to-noise ratios (CNR), subjective scores of arterial enhancement, small arterial detail, image noise and venous contamination which obtained from the three different tube voltages were compared.ResultsHigh quality images were obtained in all patients. The mean attenuation in the internal carotid artery at T junction was significantly higher at80kVp (554±80.9HU) than at120kVp (353±38.3HU) and at140kVp (216±21.0HU). The scores in image quality, SNR, CNR in80kVp were significantly higher than those in120kVp and140kVp. Inter-observer agreement was good (kappa value=0.722, P<0.05).ConclusionFor cerebral DE-CTA, the80kVp images were not only applied in bone removal and created the fusion images, but also could provide diagnostic image quality by being analyzed separately...