How Miscentring in CT Scans Affects Radiation Patient Dose and Image Quality
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33178/boolean.2026.1.6Keywords:
Radiology, Computed Tomography, Radiation Dose, Patient PositioningAbstract
Computed tomography (CT) imaging is a cornerstone of modern medical diagnostics, yet patient miscentring remains a persistent issue affecting both radiation dose and image quality. Proper patient positioning is critical to optimising scan parameters, reducing unnecessary radiation exposure, and ensuring diagnostic accuracy. Miscentring of patients during CT scanning can result in increased radiation dose, image noise, and potential diagnostic errors. This article explores the impact of patient miscentring on CT imaging, discusses contributing factors, and highlights strategies for mitigation.
References
Habibzadeh MA., Ay MR., Asl ARK., Ghadiri H., Zaidi H. Impact of miscentering on patient dose and image noise in x-ray CT imaging: phantom and clinical studies. Phys Med 2012;28(3):191–9. Doi: 10.1016/J.EJMP.2011.06.002.
Barreto I., Lamoureux R., Olguin C., Quails N., Correa N., Rill L., et al. Impact of patient centering in CT on organ dose and the effect of using a positioning compensation system: Evidence from OSLD measurements in postmortem subjects. J Appl Clin Med Phys 2019;20(6):141–51. Doi: 10.1002/acm2.12594.
Perisinakis K., Seimenis I., Tzedakis A., Papadakis AE., Damilakis J. The effect of head size/shape, miscentering, and bowtie filter on peak patient tissue doses from modern brain perfusion 256-slice CT: How can we minimize the risk for deterministic effects. Med Phys 2013;40(1). Doi: 10.1118/1.4773042.
Kaasalainen T., Palmu K., Reijonen V., Kortesniemi M. Effect of patient centering on patient dose and image noise in chest CT. American Journal of Roentgenology 2014;203(1):123–30. Doi: 10.2214/AJR.13.12028.
Christner JA., Braun NN., Jacobsen MC., Carter RE., Kofler JM., McCollough CH. Size-specific dose estimates for adult patients at CT of the torso. Radiology 2012;265(3):841–7. Doi: 10.1148/RADIOL.12112365.
Kaasalainen T., Palmu K., Lampinen A., Kortesniemi M. Effect of vertical positioning on organ dose, image noise and contrast in pediatric chest CT--phantom study. Pediatr Radiol 2013;43(6):673–84. Doi: 10.1007/s00247-012-2611-z.
Kalra K. Relationship between patient centering,mean computed tomography numbers and noise in abdominal computed tomography:Influence of anthropomorphic parameters 2012.
Szczykutowicz TP., DuPlissis A., Pickhardt PJ. Variation in CT Number and Image Noise Uniformity According to Patient Positioning in MDCT. AJR Am J Roentgenol 2017;208(5):1064–72. Doi: 10.2214/AJR.16.17215.
Yu J., Iwaz J. Recognizing and Addressing Artifacts in Cardiac CT. Practical Guide to Cardiac CT 2024:81–9. Doi: 10.1007/978-981-97-6919-3_8.
Al-Hayek Y., Spuur K., Davidson R., Hayre C., Currie G., Zheng X. The effect of inappropriate patient centring on CT numbers and radiation dose: A survey of current practices and knowledge. Radiography 2024;30(1):100–6. Doi: 10.1016/j.radi.2023.10.009.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Yasser H. Hadi

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
