Effect of reconstruction parameters on cardiac CT angiography image quality

Cardiac CT exams are being investigated as a means to diagnose and evaluate coronary artery disease. The quality of these studies is determined by many factors including timing of contrast delivery, patient cooperation during breath hold, CT acquisition parameters including radiation dose, and scan reconstruction parameters such as slice thickness and reconstruction filters. The purpose of this investigation was to determine the impact of reconstruction parameters on spatial resolution and image quality as defined both by signal-to-noise ratio measurements and human judgement. Both phantom and clinical datasets were investigated. Our findings indicate that slice thickness and the choice of reconstruction filter have significant impact on noise and image quality perception. Further investigation into the effects of clinical interpretation of coronary lesions is needed.