Table 1.
CT protocol parameters.
Fig 1.
a. All CT protocols (SDCT and RDCT-1, 2 and 3) reconstructed with FBP and IRL4 and IRL6 in sagittal reformations. b. As for Fig 1a, but images were obtained from a male cadaver (age at death: 53 years; BMI: 20.8 kg/m2).
Fig 2.
A Measurement of CT number and objective image noise (OIN). Axial CT image shows placement of ROI (circle) in the center of the body of the third lumbar vertebra. Measurements were performed in three adjacent slices and the mean values were calculated. B Quantitative analyses of OIN (defined as SD of CT number) for SDCT and three different RDCT protocols, as measured in the center of the body of the third lumbar vertebra. Images were reconstructed with FBP and IRL4 and IRL6. Horizontal midpoints of diamonds represent mean values, and error bars denote 95% CIs. Compared to SDCT with FBP, even the RDCT protocol with lowest dose (RDCT-3) reconstructed with IR resulted in lower OIN.
Table 2.
Radiation dose.
Fig 3.
Mean image quality ratings of all analyzed anatomical structures for SDCT and RDCT protocols.
Table 3.
Number of diagnostically acceptable studies of the lumbar spine.
Fig 4.
Direct comparison in quality of axial, coronal and sagittal reformatted images produced by the SDCT reconstructed with FBP, and RDCT-2 reconstructed with IRL6.