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Table 1 (a) CT and (b) PET acquisition and reconstruction protocol settings for the phantom scans

From: Validation of CARE kV automated tube voltage selection for PET-CT: PET quantification and CT radiation dose reduction in phantoms

(a)

CT acquisition settings

 Scan number

1

2

3

4

5

 Acquisition mode

Helical

 Organ characteristic

Abdomen

 CARE dose 4D (mAs) modulation strength

Average

 CARE kV mode

On

Semi

Semi

Semi

Semi

 CARE kV reference tube voltage (kV)

120

 CARE kV reference mAs (mAs)

50

 Image quality optimisation setting

Non-contrast-enhanced CT (point 3 on sliding scale)

 Automatic tube voltage selection

On

Off

Off

Off

Off

 Tube voltage used(kV)

Optimal kV determined by scanner

80

100

120

140

 Tube current modulation

On

 Tube rotation time (s)

0.5

 Collimation (detector rows × mm)

16 × 1.2

 Pitch

0.8

 Axial scan length (cm)

34.7 (Lungman, lungman plus fat); 22.1 (Esser, NEMA IQ)

CT reconstruction settings

 Reconstruction method

Filtered backprojection

 Kernel

B19f

 Slice thickness (mm)

5

 Increment (mm)

5

(b)

PET acquisition settings

 Acquisition mode

Step-and-shoot

 Time per bed (mins)

3

 Number of bed positions

2 (Lungman, Lungman plus fat); 1 (Esser, NEMA IQ)

 Location of PET bed position

Shoulder joints down to base of liver in Lungman and Lungman plus fat (no scanning beyond axial extent of phantom); Axial extent of Esser phantom plus 3.5 cm scanning beyond phantom lid containing cylinders; axial extent of NEMA IQ phantom (scanning exactly the axial extent)

PET reconstruction settings

 Matrix

400

 Algorithm

Ultra-HD PET (time-of-flight plus point-spread-function modelling)

 Attenuation correction

Yes

 Scatter correction

Yes

 Iterations

2

 Subsets

21

 Filter (type, mm)

Gaussian, 2.5

 Slice thickness (mm)

5