CT dose reduction for visceral adipose tissue measurement: Effects of model-based and adaptive statistical iterative reconstructions and filtered back projection

OBJECTIVE. The objective of our study was to evaluate the effects of radiation dose reduction and the reconstruction algorithm used-filtered back projection (FBP), adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction (ASIR), or model-based iterative reconstruction (MBIR)-on the measurement of abdominal visceral fat using CT. SUBJECTS AND METHODS. Standard-dose and low-dose abdominal CT examinations were performed simultaneously with automatic exposure control in 59 patients; the noise index for a 5-mm slice thickness was 12 for routine-dose CT and 24 for low-dose CT. The routine-dose CT images were reconstructed using FBP (reference standard), and the low-dose CT images were reconstructed using FBP, ASIR (so-called hybrid iterative reconstruction [IR]), and MBIR (so-called pure IR). In the 236 image series obtained, the visceral fat area was measured. Data were analyzed by the Pearson correlation coefficient test and a Bland-Altman difference analysis. RESULTS. The radiation dose of the low-dose abdominal CT examinations was 73.0% (mean) lower than that of routine-dose CT examinations. Excellent correlations were observed between the visceral fat areas measured on the routine-dose FBP images and those measured on the low-dose FBP, low-dose ASIR, and low-dose MBIR images (r = 0.998, 0.998, and 0.998, respectively; p < 0.001). A Bland-Altman difference analysis revealed excellent agreements, with mean biases of-0.47,-0.41, and 0.18 cm2 for the visceral fat area between the routine-dose FBP images and the low-dose FBP, low-dose ASIR, and low-dose MBIR images, respectively. CONCLUSION. A 73.0% reduction of the radiation dose would be possible in CT for the measurement of the abdominal visceral fat regardless of which reconstruction algorithm is used (i.e., FBP, hybrid IR, or pure IR).