Patient Centering in MDCT: Dose Effects

Abstract

Although the contribution of CT scanning to radiation dose was recognized prior to the introduction of multidetector-row CT scanners, ever expanding applications of multidetector-row CT scanning in patient care and, of late, use of CT for screening have heightened concerns and awareness of radiation- induced cancer from CT radiation dose and prompted the development of strategies and techniques for dose reduction (Frush 2003; Kalra et al. 2004a; Tack and Gevenois 2004). Technological innovations for dose reduction and optimization include pre-patient beam collimation and beamshaping filters as well as automatic exposure control techniques (Kalra et al. 2004b). To obtain appropriate benefits of these techniques in terms of dose reduction without compromising image quality, it is important to appropriately center the patients in the scanner gantry isocenter (Kalra et al. 2004b).