Radiation dose reduction and image quality in pediatric paranasal sinus CT: with automatic tube current modulation and iterative reconstruction technique

Our objective is to evaluate radiation dose and image quality in pediatric paranasal sinus computed tomography (CT) with automatic tube current modulation (ATCM) and sinogram-affirmed iterative reconstruction algorithm (SAFIRE). CT scans from 80 patients were divided into two groups: Group A [80 kVp, pitch 1.5, 40 mAs, the filtered back projection (FBP) algorithm] and Group B (70 kVp, pitch 3, ATCM with reference at 40 mAs, SAFIRE strengths 1-5). We have evaluated image quality and radiation dose. Group B demonstrated significantly lower volume computed tomography dose index, dose-length product, and effective dose than Group A (0.13 +/- 0.03 vs. 1.57 +/- 0.01 mGy, 2.27 +/- 0.82 vs. 19.88 +/- 2.01 mGy<middle dot>cm, and 0.0081 +/- 0.0017 vs. 0.079 +/- 0.013 mSv, respectively; P < .001). Increasing SAFIRE strengths correlated with noise reduction and SNR enhancement. Group B's noise and SNRsoft at SAFIRE strength 5 were comparable with Group A. Images reconstructed with SAFIRE strength 5 in Group B exhibit comparable image quality with FBP in Group A.