Influence of CT Low Tube Voltage on Image Quality and Radiation Dose in Patients with Chest Pain

Purpose To explore the influence of low tube voltage of 128-slice CT on image quality and radiation dose in patients with acute chest pain. Materials and Methods Fifty patients with clinical acute chest pain underwent retrospective ECG-gated TRO on a 128-slice CT scanner. All the patients were randomly divided into group A(100kV) and group B(120 kV), with 25 cases in each group. Image quality was scored by5-point method. CT value, image noise(N), enhanced signal to noise ratio(SNR), contrast to noise ratio(CNR) of aorta, pulmonary and coronary of two groups were measured and calculated. Dose length product(DLP) was recorded and radiation dose(ED) was calculated. The image quality and radiation dose of the two groups were comapred. Results Subjective score of image quality had no statistical signifcance between the two groups(t=- 0.667, P0.05). Average CT value of aorta, pulmonary artery and coronary artery of group A was higher than that of group B, the difference was statistically significant(t=3.753, 2.081, 3.755, P0.05). N, SNR and CNR had no statistically difference between the two groups(t=0.654, 0.818, 1.357, P0.05). ED of group A [(7.25±1.53) mSv] was signifcantly lower than that of group B [(11.86±2.22) mSv](P0.05). Conclusion Low tube voltage 128-slice CT TRO can reduce radiation dose without reducing image quality,which should be widely applied.