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PURPOSE
A high-pitch dual-source CT (DSCT) was compared to a standard single-source CT protocol in terms of dose and image quality for malignant lymphoma staging.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Data from 43 patients who underwent DSCT (group 1) of the neck for staging of malignant lymphoma and 40 patients who underwent regular single source CT (group 2) were investigated retrospectively. Volume CT dose index (CTDIvol), dose length product (DLP), background noise (BN), attenuation values, signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR), scan time, effective tube current-time product (eff. mAs), subjective diagnostic image quality and artifact burden were compared.

RESULTS
CTDIvol (5.5 ± 0.8 mGy vs. 12.4 ± 1.4 mGy), DLP (172 ± 27 mGycm vs. 344 ± 60 mGycm, p<0.0001), eff. mAs (98 ± 15 mAs vs. 183 ± 20 mAs, p<0.0001) and scan time (0.64 ± 0.05 s vs. 8.21 ± 0.72 s) were lower for group 1. BN was higher (p<0.001) for group 1 with a mean difference of 2.6 HU. SNR for sternocleidomastoid and pectoral muscle was lower (6.6-12.3 vs. 7.8-19.1) for group 1. Subjective image quality (1.55 ± 0.6 vs. 1.42 ± 0.5) and artifact burden (1.62 ± 1.0 vs. 1.57 ± 0.9) were not rated significantly different (p=0.47 and p=0.80) with a good inter-observer agreement (κ=0.59-0.90).

CONCLUSION
High-pitch DSCT allows reduction of patient dose for cervical lymphoma staging while diagnostic image quality is preserved.