The impact of a metal artefact reduction algorithm on treatment planning for patients undergoing radiotherapy of the pelvis.

Background And Purpose: Metallic implants cause artefacts in computed tomography (CT) images and can introduce significant errors to structure visualisation and dosimetric calculation within the radiotherapy planning process. This study evaluated an orthopaedic metal artefact reduction algorithm and its effect on the CT number, image noise, structure delineation, and treatment dose.

Methods: Raw CT data were reconstructed using standard filtered back projection and an artefact reduction algorithm to create 'standard' and 'corrected' images.