EVALUATION OF DOSE REDUCTION POTENTIALS OF A NOVEL SCATTER CORRECTION SOFTWARE FOR BEDSIDE CHEST X-RAY IMAGING.

Bedside chest X-rays (CXR) for catheter position control may add up to a considerable radiation dose for patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). In this study, image quality and dose reduction potentials of a novel X-ray scatter correction software (SkyFlow, Philips Healthcare, Hamburg, Germany) were evaluated. CXRs of a 'LUNGMAN' (Kyoto Kagaku Co., LTD, Kyoto, Japan) thoracic phantom with a portacath system, a central venous line and a dialysis catheter were performed in an experimental set-up with multiple tube voltage and tube current settings without and with an antiscatter grid. Images with diagnostic exposure index (EI) 250-500 were evaluated for the difference in applied mAs with and without antiscatter grid. Three radiologists subjectively assessed the diagnostic image quality of grid and non-grid images. Compared with a non-grid image, usage of an antiscatter grid implied twice as high mAs in order to reach diagnostic EI. SkyFlow significantly improved the image quality of images acquired without grid. CXR with grid provided better image contrast than grid-less imaging with scatter correction.