Radiology, Vol 139, 139-146, Copyright © 1981 by Radiological Society of North America
An assessment of the role of scan speed in perceived image quality of body computed tomography
AH Robbins, RD Pugatch, SG Gerzof, R Spira, SC Rankin and DR Gale
Forty-three chest (noncardiac) and 75 abdominal computed tomographic (CT)
examinations were studied by obtaining four sections of a pertinent area
using 2.25-, 4.5-, 9-, and 18-second scan speeds. Chest scans obtained with
the three faster speeds were perceived to be qualitatively similar to one
another but were rated better than the 18- second sections. While these
qualitative differences were statistically significant, most were
relatively unimportant clinically. Analysis of the abdominal sections
showed significant qualitative improvement with each successively faster
scan speed. The only sections rated unreadable and/or showing large numbers
of motion artifacts were abdominal studies, primarily 18-second studies. A
statistically significant loss of diagnostic information was noted with
18-second scans, especially in the upper abdomen.
