Possible Radiation Dose Reduction in Abdominal Plain CT Using Deep Learning Reconstruction

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

PURPOSE: The purposes of this study were to evaluate the low-contrast detectability of CT images assuming hepatocellular carcinoma and to determine whether dose reduction in abdominal plain CT imaging is possible. METHODS: ) was measured and compared in a 5-mm module with a CT value difference of 10 HU, assuming hepatocellular carcinoma; a visual examination was also performed. Moreover, an NPS within a uniform module was measured. RESULTS: was higher for DLR at all doses (1.12 at 150 mA for DLR and 1.07 at 250 mA for MBIR). On visual evaluation, DLR could detect up to 150 mA and MBIR up to 250 mA. The NPS was lower for DLR at 0.1 cycles/mm at 150 mA. CONCLUSION: The low-contrast detection performance was better with DLR than with MBIR, indicating the possibility of dose reduction.