Dose Efficiency Index (DEI)

Image quality has been the most important criterion in CT scanner development for both radiologists and manufacturers, due to the diagnostic value of these systems. Recently, considerable concern has been expressed about the radiation dose to patients from CT examinations because:

- CT delivers a higher dose than conventional

film-screen examinations

- Technological advances in CT have increased

utilization für a wide range of conditions

- Operators do not always match scan protocols

to patient size and clinical needs.

As a result, CT manufacturers along with users, are actively seeking ways in which to make CT scanners more dose efficient. The major difficulty is that image quality and radiation dose are inextricably linked, so an acceptable compromise must be achieved. Unfortunately, traditional methods of evaluating CT dose do not sufficiently take into account the associated image quality. This study was undertaken to develop a new method for evaluating dose as a function of image quality, the Dose Efficiency Index (DEI).