Purpose: To compare air kerma after scanning a phantom with C-arm CT and with 64-multidetector row CT (64MDCT).
Materials and methods: A phantom was scanned using parameters based on data of ten patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who had C-arm CT during hepatic arteriography and 64MDCT during arterial portography. Radiation monitors were used to measure air kerma ten times at each of five points: the center (A), top (B), left side (C), bottom (D), and right side (E).
Results: For C-arm CT vs. 64MDCT, air kerma after scanning was 10.5 ± 0.2 vs. 6.4 ± 0.0 for A, 1.5 ± 0.0 vs. 11.6 ± 0.2 for B, 37.1 ± 0.2 vs. 11.1 ± 0.1 for C, 55.6 ± 1.0 vs. 10.6 ± 0.1 for D, and 40.5 ± 0.5 vs. 11.7 ± 0.1 for E, respectively. Air kerma for A, B, C, D, and E was 1.64, 0.13, 3.34, 5.24, and 3.46 times greater for C-arm CT than for 64MDCT, respectively.
Conclusion: Using the same scanning parameters as for clinical cases, air kerma values were greater with C-arm CT than with 64MDCT; at the dorsal side of the phantom, they were 5.24 times greater with C-arm CT compared with 64MDCT.