Whitney Palmer

Ultra Low-Dose CT Might Not Mean an Equipment Upgrade

Published on the Nov. 3, 2011, Diagnostic Imaging website

By Whitney L.J. Howell

Bringing your low-dose CT protocols down even further doesn’t have to mean tossing out your old scanners and buying pricey new ones. According to one San Diego-based imaging center, you can trim radiation doses to almost nothing and still get high-quality scans appropriate for diagnosis.

The key is pairing iterative reconstruction (IR) with other methods that tailor low-dose protocols based on patient weight, said Jon M. Robins, MD, co-chief executive officer for Imaging Healthcare Specialists (IHS). IR technology wipes noise from CT scans, leaving behind an image with clear resolution. Using both strategies together means Robins wasn’t forced to purchase new scanning equipment.

“Our center made a commitment a few years back to offer the lowest dose CT scans we could. We have older scanners in my office – 4-slice, 8-slice, and so on – and I didn’t want to spend the $90,000 to $100,000 on technology with low-dose characteristics built in,” said Robins, who is also IHS’s heart imaging medical director. “IR has allowed us to extend our low-dose efforts to head and neck scans, pelvis, colonoscopy, sinus, and others.”

IHS purchased its IR technology – generic iterative retrospective reconstruction (GIRR) – from a third-party vendor in Israel. According to Robins, it interfaces with older scanners, enabling the machines to produce ultra low-dose images with clarity equal to scans from more modern technologies.

To read the remainder of the article: http://www.diagnosticimaging.com/low-dose/content/article/113619/1983914

November 7, 2011 - Posted by wjpalmer | Healthcare | challenges of reading low-dose CT scans, generic iterative retrospective reconstruction, GIRR, Imaging Healthcare Specialists, iterative reconstruction, Jon M. Robins, low-dose CT protocols, Paul Kinahan, potential 90 reduction in dose in CT scans, removing noise from CT scans, ultra-low dose CT protocols, upgrading older CT equipment to provide low-dose scans