TY - JOUR T1 - Effect of Tube Voltage on Image Quality in 64-Section Multidetector 3D CT Angiography: Evaluation with a Vascular Phantom with Superimposed Bone Skull Structures JF - American Journal of Neuroradiology JO - Am. J. Neuroradiol. SP - 620 LP - 625 DO - 10.3174/ajnr.A1871 VL - 31 IS - 4 AU - Y. Murakami AU - S. Kakeda AU - K. Kamada AU - N. Ohnari AU - J. Nishimura AU - M. Ogawa AU - K. Otsubo AU - Y. Morishita AU - Y. Korogi Y1 - 2010/04/01 UR - http://www.ajnr.org/content/31/4/620.abstract N2 - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Optimal tube voltage and tube current settings are not well established. The purpose of our study was to investigate the image quality on 3D CT angiograms of the brain at various kilovoltage settings by evaluating the depiction of simulated intracranial lesions by using a vascular phantom. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An anthropomorphic vascular phantom with superimposed bone skull structures was designed to simulate various intracranial aneurysms with aneurysmal blebs. We performed CT angiography by using a 64-detector row CT scanner for various effective tube currents with 4 tube voltages of 80, 100, 120, and 135 kV(p). Simulated aneurysm enhancement and image noise were quantified; SNR and CNR were calculated. The depiction of the simulated aneurysms and blebs on 3D CT angiograms obtained with the volume-rendering technique was subjectively assessed. The effective dose was calculated on the basis of a CTDIw. The results of several protocols were compared by using the Student t test. RESULTS: At identical doses levels (CTDIw), the mean SNR and CNR at 100 kV(p) were significantly higher than those at 80, 120, and 135 kV(p); and the mean qualitative image score at 100 kV(p) was significantly superior to those at 80 and 135 kV(p). CONCLUSIONS: Our phantom study suggests that the tube voltage of 100 kV(p) is desirable for cerebral 3D CT angiograms, and the higher or lower kilovoltage settings may result in the degradation in diagnostic image quality. CNRcontrast-to-noise ratioCTDIwweighted CT dose indexkV(p)kilovolt (peak)MDCTmultidetector row CTROIregion of interestSNRsignal-to-noise ratio ER -