La Radiologia medica
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La Radiologia medica · Jul 2002
Comparative StudySpiral CT evaluation of pulmonary emphysema using a low-dose technique.
To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy and clinical acceptability of low-dose spiral CT for determining pulmonary volumes and emphysema extension in patients with pulmonary emphysema, in comparison with studies based on spiral CT at conventional dose. ⋯ Quantitative low-dose spiral CT is a very good method to quantify pulmonary volumes and calculate the extension of the anatomic emphysema. The reduction of mA from 240 to 80 lowers the estimated dose by 30%, without compromising the accuracy of the results. Our study achieved a highly significant correlation between the results obtained with the two spiral CT techniques and between these results and the respiratory function tests. In clinical practice, the easiest way to reduce the dose in spiral CT of the lung is to reduce the tube current. The low-dose method allows a significant reduction in radiation exposure. Further studies are required to establish to what extent the dose can be reduced without increasing in quantum noise and thereby compromising the quality of the study.