Detection and characterization of focal liver lesions with ultra-low dose computed tomography in neoplastic patients

Abstract Purpose The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare the diagnostic accuracy of ultra-low dose (ULD) computed tomography (CT) with that of standard dose (STD) CT in the detection and characterization of focal liver lesions in neoplastic patients. Materials and methods A total of 177 neoplastic patients who underwent two abdominopelvic CT examinations (one with STD and one with ULD protocol) for suspected focal liver lesions were included. There were 103 men and 74 women with a mean age of 64.6 ± 14.4 (SD) (range: 19–93 years). Raw data images were reconstructed with iterative reconstruction. Dose length product (DLP) and effective dose for both protocols were compared. Images were independently evaluated by two radiologists for image-quality, diagnostic quality, and confidence level. Results DLP for STD and ULD were respectively 215.4 ± 92.0 (SD) mGy·cm (range: 76–599 mGy·cm) and 90.7 ± 37.2 (SD) mGy·cm (range: 32–254 mGy·cm). Effective dose for STD and ULD CT were 3.2 ± 1.4 (SD) mSv (range: 1.1–9.0 mSv) and 1.4 ± 0.6 (SD) mSv (range: 0.5 to 3.8 mSv). A significant 58% dose reduction was found between the two protocols ( P P Conclusion STD CT helps detect and characterize focal liver lesions. ULD CT offers good performance to detect focal liver lesions but with lower performances for lesion characterization.