Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare the quality of coronal multiplanar reconstructions with the quality of direct coronal thin-section multidetector CT (MDCT) scans.
Materials and methods: Axial multidetector CT (MDCT) scans were obtained through the entire lung in 10 normal autopsy lung specimens using an MDCT scanner. Four protocols were used: 0.5-mm collimation with a 0.5-mm reconstruction interval; 0.5-mm collimation with a 0.3-mm reconstruction interval; 1-mm collimation with a 0.5-mm reconstruction interval; and 2-mm collimation with a 1-mm reconstruction interval. Multiplanar reconstruction images with 0.5-mm slice thickness were obtained from the four types of data sets. Direct coronal thin-section CT of the same 10 autopsy lung specimens was performed using 0.5-mm scan collimation, a 0.3-mm reconstruction interval, a 25.6-cm field of view, and a 512 x 512 matrix. Two independent observers compared the image quality of each of the four coronal multiplanar reconstruction sets with that of direct coronal thin-section CT scans. The observers analyzed visualization of anatomic features and artifacts.
Results: The total image quality of the multiplanar reconstructions obtained from 0.5-mm collimation data with or without 0.3-mm overlapping reconstruction was equal to that of direct coronal thin-section CT scans in all 20 interpretations. The image quality of multiplanar reconstruction images from 0.5-mm collimation data either with or without overlapping reconstruction was superior to multiplanar reconstruction images obtained from 1- or 2-mm collimation scans (p < 0.01, Fisher's exact test). Stairstep artifacts in multiplanar reconstructions using 0.5-mm collimation without overlapping reconstruction were equal to those with overlapping reconstruction and were fewer than those on 1- or 2-mm collimation (p < 0.01, Mann-Whitney U test).
Conclusion: The image quality of coronal multiplanar reconstructions from isotropic voxel data obtained using 0.5-mm collimation, with or without overlapping reconstruction, is similar to that of direct coronal thin-section CT scans.