To define a low-dose coronary calcium scan protocol including advanced dose reduction techniques yielding similar calcium score results as the conventional full-dose protocol.

A calcium insert with 100 small calcifications (size: 0.5-2.0 mm, density: 90-540 mgHA) was placed inside a anthropomorphic thorax phantom and was scanned with third generation dual-source CT, see Fig. 1 . The reference protocol was 120 kVp at 90 reference (ref) mAs with filtered back-projection (FBP). The same ref mAs was used for acquisitions at 70, 80, 90, 100, 110 kVp, reconstructed with FBP and Advanced Modeled Iterative Reconstruction (ADMIRE), strengths 1 to 5. These 30 protocols were...

Of the 30 protocols compared to the reference protocol, only 90kVp-ADMIRE3 and 100kVp-ADMIRE1 did not show any difference in detectability, Agatston score, volume score and mass score (p>0.206). Detectability and Agatston score were not affected by lower tube currents of 36-72 ref mAs with 90kVp-ADMIRE3 and 54-72 ref mAs with 100kVp-ADMIRE1 for small to large patient size (p>0.206), see Fig. 2 , while the and CNR and SNR were similar or higher than the reference protocol (0.008

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