Suitability of helical multislice acquisition technique for routine unenhanced brain CT: an image quality study using a 16-row detector configuration.

Subjective and objective image quality (IQ) criteria, radiation doses, and acquisition times were compared using incremental monoslice, incremental multislice, and helical multislice acquisition techniques for routine unenhanced brain computed tomography (CT). Twenty-four patients were examined by two techniques in the same imaging session using a 16-row CT system equipped with 0.75-width detectors. Contiguous "native" 3-mm-thick slices were reconstructed for all acquisitions from four detectors for each slice (4x0.75 mm), with one channel available per detector. Two protocols were tailored to compare: (1) one-slice vs four-slice incremental images; (2) incremental vs helical four-slice images. Two trained observers independently scored 12 subjective items of IQ. Preference for the technique was assessed by one-tailed t test and the interobserver variation by two-tailed t test. The two observers gave very close IQ scores for the three techniques without significant interobserver variations. Measured IQ parameters failed to reveal any difference between techniques, and an approximate half radiation dose reduction was obtained by using the full 16-row configuration. Acquisition times were cumulatively shortened by using the multislice and the helical modality.