A Reduced Radiation Dose CTA

Computed Tomography Angiography (CTA) has become an important tool in diagnosing and evaluating vascular diseases; however, its usage has been limited by the radiation concern. In this paper, we propose a (radiation) dose reduction approach along with the adaptive bolus chasing CTA techniques, which are capable of tracking the contrast bolus peak during the CTA scan. By modulating the tube current (and collimator width) online, we can reduce the total radiation dose and maintain the contrast to noise ratio (CNR) level of the blood vessel. Numerical experiments results show that the effective radiation dose can be reduced about 39% by using the proposed dose reduction method.