Bedside chest X-rays (CXR) are an essential diagnostic tool in severely ill patients on the intensive care unit (ICU) to collect additional information about cardiac and respiratorystatus as well as to exclude complications after interventions like intubation or placement ofa central venous line or other catheters. The control ofcatheter position is indicatedafter its placement, in case of an accidental dislocation as well as in the case of suspected non-functioning and therefore may add up...

Bedside CXRs were simulated with multiple imaging of a „Lungman“ (Kyoto Kagaku) thoracic phantom in an experimental setup; the phantom was used either in its “thin” version or after application of two polyurethane layers to simulate corpulent patients. Control of catheter position was simulated with external application of either a Portacath system (diameter 6 F, 2 mm), a central venous line (diameter 9.5 F, 3.15 mm) or a dialysis catheter (diameter 12 F, 4 mm). Imaging was performed with a...

The application of an anti-scatter grid implied twice as high mAs in order to reach diagnostic EI_s (significant in all set-ups, p<0.0001, Figure 3), proving the dose increasing effect of grid application. The scatter correction software significantly improved the diagnostic quality of images acquired without grid (significant in all set-ups, Figure 4). CXR with grid provided better image quality than gridless imaging with scatter correction.

The evaluated scatter correction software significantly improved image quality of gridless CXR. Even though its image quality does not reach that of CXR with anti-scatter grid, the significant reduction in patient dose advocates the use of such algorithms for bedside CXR imaging.

[1] Wandtke JC. Bedside Chest Radiography. Radiology 1994 Jan; 190(1):1-10 [2] Mentrup et al. Grid-like contrast restoration for non-grid chest radiographs by software-based scatter correction. ECR 2014 C-0181 doi: 10.1594/ecr2014/C-0181