CT Acquisition Protocol Groundwork
Goal:
Proposed Protocol
Q. Should we propose two protocols 1) for high resolution; and (2) for world-wide trials in patients with late stage disease?
- Or maybe we should define a several protocols with different "quality" scores
- Early stage disease is a different beast than later stage disease in terms of how they appear, how they should be imaged and how successful different kinds of image processing and measurement
<Lets start with a blend of NLST and ACRIN 6678 (see below)>
<Should seriously consider "raising the bar" to take a little more advantage of newer scanners>
Related Work
Defining Acquisition Protocols
ACRIN has defined a number of protocols for CT-based clinical trials.
- CT Lung Specific protocols and QA procedures are discussed in work done for the ACRIN National Lung Screening Trial
- Table provides comparable acq. parameters for different scanners (16-18 models)
- Maps corresponding differences in terms and header details
- ACRIN 6678 is a diagnostic-oriented (less concern on dose) that also does similar work
- Does not appear to have the comprehensive table of parameters that NLST does
- FOV (Field of View) is an issue because of interactions between the needs of CT and PET
Reviewing Acquisition Protocols
UPICT is preparing a process for proposing/reviewing protocols and has access to experts for reviews.
It would likely be beneficial to review our proposed protocols with them.
Storing/Transfering Acquisition Protocols
DICOM is working on a format for encoding acquisition protocols as DICOM objects which can be stored/retrieved.
Field Testing Acquisition Protocols
Q. Should we broadcast our proposed protocols for general use in pharma trials that are starting up now, before we complete our profiles and groundwork?