Radiologists should lower the dose delivered by cardiac CT angiography by 39 percent in patients weighing 185 pounds or less, according to a study performed at the University of Erlangen in Germany.

The study included 100 patients, weighing 185 pounds or less, who underwent cardiac CT angiography, either using a tube voltage of 120 kV or 100 kV. Results showed that the effective radiation dose for patients scanned with 120 kV ranged from 8.8 to 16.9 mSv while the effective radiation dose for patients scanned with 100 kV ranged from 4.9 to 11.9 mSv.

In both instances, the overall image quality was preserved, said Tobias Pflederer, M.D., lead author of the study. He added that "coronary CT angiography has tremendously high accuracy for detecting and ruling out coronary artery stenosis, so it is expected that indications for coronary CT angiography will grow in the future.
Dr. Pflederer noted that the standard coronary CT angiography protocol uses the higher tube voltage value of 120 kV. "However our study shows that 100 kV can be used instead. It is important to keep the radiation dose as low as possible, especially in younger and female patients," he advises.

This study appears in the April issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology.

Source: American Journal of Roentgenology.

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