An adult and pediatric size-based contrast administration reduction phantom study for single and dual-energy CT through preservation of contrast-to-noise ratio.

Background: Global shortages of iodinated contrast media (ICM) during COVID-19 pandemic forced the imaging community to use ICM more strategically in CT exams.

Purpose: The purpose of this work is to provide a quantitative framework for preserving iodine CNR while reducing ICM dosage by either lowering kV in single-energy CT (SECT) or using lower energy virtual monochromatic images (VMI) from dual-energy CT (DECT) in a phantom study.

Materials And Methods: In SECT study, phantoms with effective diameters of 9.