Simulating CT Scans with Reduced Radiation

The proprietary reconstruction platform ReconCT (version 14.2.0.40998, Siemens Healthineers, Forchheim, Germany) was used to simulate the raw datasets of the CT examinations. It has already been shown in several studies that it is possible to simulate CT examinations with reduced mAs and, thus, lower doses using ReconCT [17 (link),18 (link),19 (link)]. Low-dose datasets were generated using three different dose levels: 25%, 50%, and 75% of the original dose. For each dose level, one dataset was reconstructed using FBP and ADMIRE strength 3 and 5. All images were reconstructed with Bv40d kernel, 3 mm thick sections, and 3 mm section increments.