I am often asked what, exactly, iterative reconstruction is – and why it is so important. I thought it would be a good idea to discuss what I do and what my work means for the University of Washington Medical Center and our patients.

A brief overview of iterative reconstruction

Iterative reconstruction to us means potentially significant radiation dose reduction to our patients, but the look of the CT image itself needs some getting used to. When we first got the option on our scanners, we wanted to make sure that our radiologists would be comfortable with the images produced.

So, based on our protocols at the time, we reconstructed them with varying percentages of iterative reconstruction and noise indexes, and had our radiologists evaluate the images and decide what they found to be the most similar in noise and image quality to our standard at the time.

They used a double-blind method to evaluate the images, and based on what they decided, for noise index and iterative reconstruction percentage we were able to reduce radiation dose to our patients by 40-60 percent.

The evolution of iterative reconstruction at UW

We are constantly striving for improvement in image quality and dose reduction – both of which lead to better patient care. So we look again at our existing protocols and evaluate how we can combine certain series or opt for higher noise indexes in order to reduce dose. We also introduce different percentages of the iterative reconstruction and display these for our radiologists to further evaluate.

What UW is doing that others aren’t

Our radiologists are always willing to go out of their comfort zone in order to reduce dose. I say this again because of their willingness to take the time to look at images that traditionally would not be pleasing to their eyes, but may be more than adequate for answering the questions that the ordering physicians need.

And, again, a prime example of that is the different percentages of iterative reconstructions that they’ve seen and continue to look at, in order to properly evaluate the balance of dose vs. image quality – and always striving to improve both.

Why this work is important for patients

We always put patients first. To do this, we need to make sure that we give the right amount of radiation dose. With the modern machines we have, it is far too easy to give too much dose to produce the prettiest of images, but easy is not safe. To use these modern machines properly and responsibly takes a lot of extra work to accurately and safely fine tune each protocol for each patient’s needs. Our patients deserve all of that extra effort and more.