Optimization of low-contrast detectability in thin-collimated modern multidetector CT using an interactive sliding-thin-slab averaging algorithm.

Objectives: To analyze the effects of the sliding-thin-slab averaging algorithm on low-contrast performance in MDCT imaging and to find reasonable parameters for clinical routine work.

Materials And Methods: A low-contrast phantom simulating hypodense lesions (20 HU object contrast) was scanned with a 16-slice spiral CT scanner using different mAs-settings of 25, 50, 100, and 195 mAs. Other scan parameters were as follows: tube voltage = 120 kVp, slice collimation = 0.