Liver Computed Tomography With Low Tube Voltage and Model-Based Iterative Reconstruction Algorithm for Hepatic Vessel Evaluation in Living Liver Donor Candidates

Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the image quality and diagnostic performance of model-based iterative reconstruction (MBIR) for hepatic vessel evaluation on low-tube-voltage (100 kilovolt [peak]) liver computed tomography (CT) for living donors. Methods: Fifty-one liver donor candidates (low-kilovolt group) underwent low-tube-voltage CT, which was reconstructed using filtered back projection, adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction, and MBIR. Additional 51 donor candidates who underwent 120-kilovolt (peak) CT using FBP were selected as matching control (standard group). The volume CT dose index, image noise, contrast-to-noise ratios, diagnostic accuracy, and confidence of hepatic vasculatures were evaluated. Results: Significant dose reduction was obtained with low-tube-voltage CT. The MBIR images of the low-kilovolt group showed significantly lower image noise and higher contrast-to-noise ratios than did the other image sets (P < 0.001). Regarding diagnostic accuracy and confidence of hepatic vessel anatomic variations with surgical correlation, the MBIR images provided results equivalent to those of other images (P > 0.05). Conclusions: Low-tube-voltage liver CT using MBIR may increase image quality and preserve diagnostic performance of hepatic vessel evaluation at reduced radiation dose.