Low dose perfusion CT

Perfusion CT imaging, with today´s multi-detector technology and rotation speed, has great potential to become extensively used to improve both diagnosis and treatment of diseases. However, high x-ray dose and the lack of standardization of protocols limit this potential. We would like to show that the x-ray dose of CT perfusion scans can be significantly reduced without compromising clinical accuracy, thus extending perfusion CT for dose-limited applications such as cardiac imaging and facilitating its development into a routine diagnostic tool. In this study, we use a novel dynamic collimator along with both predictive sampling and exposure algorithms to reduce x-ray dose. Our preliminary study, involving five kidney perfusion cases, combines these three approaches and demonstrates that more than a 10:1 reduction in patient exposure can be achieved without sacrificing diagnostic accuracy. We believe that this will enable perfusion CT to become a routine diagnostic tool.